Kristina Barrois stuns eighth seed Marion Bartoli at the Porsche Grand Prix
German wild card Kristina Barrois upset eighth seeded French Marion Bartoli in straight sets on Wednesday. She registered a 6-4, 6-2 win over the Frenchwoman to advance into the quarter-finals of the 2011 Porsche Tennis Grand Prix.
World number 79, German displayed her exceptional skills to upset the world number 12, Bartoli by a 6-4, 6-2 score line at the Porsche Arena. It was their first duel against each other with Barrois now having a lead in the head-to-head series against the Frenchwoman by 1-0.
The 29-year-old Barrois hasn’t had much progress this season as she was ousted from either first or second rounds from all the tournaments she participated. However, before entering Stuttgart Open, the German re-focused her strategy and defeated Czech Lucie Safarova in the first round. She then triumphed over the Bartoli in eighty-five minutes to book her spot in the quarters.
In the first set, Barrois lost her opening serve to trail 0-2 in the beginning but she roared back by breaking Frenchwoman’s serve in the next game and eventually levelled the scores at 2-2. Later she held her remaining serves plausible and converted another breakpoint to her advantage in the seventh game to clinch the set with a 6-4 win.
She had a much better first serve share of 67 percent as compared to Bartoli’s 58 percent and registered an exceptional 81 percent win on it. The German also smacked two aces, committed zero breakpoints and converted two out of five breakpoint opportunities to her advantage to help her win easily.
Barrois raised her level of game in the final set and went on ruthless mode to reel off first four games in a row. Later the German held her remaining serves through her massive forehands from her arsenal of skills to seal the set with a convincing 6-2 score line.
She had an awesome first serve share this time i.e. 93 percent as opposed to Bartoli’s 53 percent and earned a convincing 68 percent win on it. The lower ranked German saved both breakpoints she faced and found six breakpoint opportunities of which she converted two to her advantagae.
Regardless of earning a breadstick in her opening round against Bulgarian Tsvetana Pironkova, Bartoli showed dismal performance in the match and clobbered several unforced errors which made the difference. The Frenchwoman clobbered four double faults, broke her lower ranked opponent serve once and saved 64 percent of breakpoints she face.
Barrois will next face Polish Agnieszka Radwanska who also upset a seeded player later that day to reach this spot. The world number 14, Radwanska upset 3rd seeded Italian Francesca Schiavone with a breadstick in eighty-eight minutes.
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