Lucie Hradecka beats Silvia Soler-Espinosa in the opening clash – Generali Ladies Linz 2012
World number 48, Lucie Hradecka, bounced over the 85th ranked Spaniard, Silvia Soler-Espinosa, in the opening round of the Generali Ladies Linz in Austria. She clubbed the win in an hour and 51 minutes; registering straight
sets score line of 6-3, 7-6(5).
Espinosa has now faced the 27-year-old Czech on three different occurrences and still hasn’t been able to solve her puzzle. It has always been a very tough meeting for the 24-year-old Spaniard but unfortunately, the luck has never
swirled in her favour despite very close calls on all occurrences.
Both players started off with a swap of breakthroughs. The first two games almost went as long as 20 minutes at the hard courts of Linz, Austria. It was a terrific start-up to the contest and more importantly allowed both players
to warm-up brilliantly with scores tied at 1-1. Another trade of breakthroughs helped the scores to 2-2 before the Czech experienced player clinched the third breakpoint on the trot to make it 3-2.
It was expected that the Spaniard will continue the trend and break serve to equalize the scores but she failed to do so and the scores moved on to 4-2 in favour of the Czech. Both players held their serves to make it 5-3. Espinosa
faltered on her serve for the fourth time in the set and that proved to be the final action from the first phase.
The second set was more conventional as both the athletes were firing in the serves with more pace and accuracy; capitalizing on them to keep the scores together. The Czech lost an early breakthrough in the third game that was
the only odd moment until the 10th game of the set. Espinosa was serving for the set when she had to witness a game featuring six deuces yet ending in favour of her rival. It was a heart-breaking moment for the 24-year-old Spaniard.
A tie-breaker round was enforced courtesy a serve hold at both ends. The experience personnel from Czech Republic took an early mini-break and won that battle. She will face the Swede superstar, Sofia Arvidsson, in the second round
of play.
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