Llagostera Vives/Mirza bounces over Bacsinszky/Martinez Sanchez in round two – China Open 2012
Fifth seeds, Spain’s Nuria Llagostera Vives and India’s Sania Mirza, made an epic comeback from a set down to triumph over the Swiss-Spanish tandem, Timea Bacsinszky and Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez, in a three-set thriller at the China Open 2012 on Wednesday.
They summed up a 4-6, 6-3, 11-9 victory against their rivals to power into the quarter-finals at this WTA (Women’s Tennis Association) Premier Mandatory event held in Beijing, China.
The Spanish-Indian tandem found their momentum after losing the opening set at this outdoor hard court event. They required one hour and 32 minutes triumphing over Bacsinszky and Martinez Sanchez in their first outing.
The Swiss-Spanish tandem made a powerful entry at the National Tennis Center. They drew the first blood in the opening game and jumped to a 2-0 lead. Despite levelling the scores in the fourth game, the underdogs broke the seeds’ serve again in the very
next game and jumped to a 4-2 lead. They held their remaining serves with conviction and clicked the opener with a 6-4 win.
Llagostera Vives and Mirza carried their losing ways in the following set. They suffered the initial blow in the opening game and fell at 0-2. However, the seeds re-focused and snatched their break back in the fourth game. The Spanish-Indian team got the
breakthrough in the eighth game and clinched the equaliser with a 6-3 score line.
The match could have gone in any direction but the seeded tandem maintained consistency in their game in the super tie-breaker. They cruised to a 5-2 lead in it before sealing the decider with a 11-9 success.
Summing up the seeds performance, Llagostera Vives and Mirza spilled more unforced errors but smashed two aces to neutralise the effect. The clobbered a lower first serve share of 63 per cent as compared to their rivals’ 69 per cent but impressively marked
28 out of 43 points on it.
Up next for the high flying seeds is the German-Czech tandem, Julia Goerges and Barbora Zahlavova Strycova, who stunned fourth seeds, United States’ Vania King and Kazakhstan’s Yaroslava Shvedova, in straight sets to set up this meeting.
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