Laura Pous-Tio defeats Barbora Zahlavova Strycova at the first round of 2011 Barcelona Ladies Open
The local crowd at the David Lloyd Club Turo in Barcelona, Spain erupted into loud hoots and hollers as home favourite Laura Pous-Tio won her first round match against Czech, Barbora Zahlavova Strycova, at the 2011 Barcelona Ladies
Open on Tuesday. The 26-year-old Spaniard concluded her straight sets victory with utmost east at 6-3, 6-3, taking just 81 minutes of play to eject Strycova out of the WTA (Women’s Tennis Association) tournament.
The Spaniard pro faced Strycova for the first time in her career and didn’t give any chance to the Czech to have her dominion over the match. But it was not an easy match, not because the Spaniard pro didn’t play well, but because
of the unexpected qualities of the Czech. With her powerful two-handed backhand strokes and big serves, she definitely proved to be a tough opponent.
Pous-Tio didn’t manage to get breakpoints in the first sets whereas, Strycova managed to save 5 of her breakpoint chances, including 2 on return. But all those points were quickly destroyed by the Spaniard who proved to be more
experienced in first serves accuracy and clinched the set with 55 percent of points in total.
In the second set Strycova continued to keep her resilience and didn’t commit any double fault, but in her first service game she got a bit sloppy. She won a meagre 19 percent on her first serves and a bit better 40 per cent on
her second service game. The Czech pro looked like she had given up but she continued to keep fighting and managed to get some more games before the match ended in Spaniard’s favour.
The Spaniard pro came through easily against Czech, breaking her six time en route to victory in straight sets. Pous-Tio bossed the rallies as despite not hitting any aces on her serves, she won 49 percent of service points and
64 percent of return points.
With this success, the world number 85 is definitely on a resurgence mode and looking more determined and focused this time to win the title. This is her third time appearance at the tournament with first two having been in 2007
and 2010. She couldn’t move past the second rounds and lost to Meghann Shaughnessy and Roberta Vinci of Italy in straight sets.
After winning this match, Pous-Tio is all set to meet the world No. 105 Jill Craybas of America in the second round of the tournament. Craybas edged past Akgul Amanmuradova of Uzbekistan in straight sets to reach the second spot
of the main draw.
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