Lucie Hradecka breezes past Alexandra Cadantu into quarterfinal – Luxembourg Open 2011
Lucky Loser Lucie Hradecka of Czech Republic eased past Romanian qualifier Alexandra Cadantu in straight sets at the BGL BNP Paribas Luxembourg Open 2011, a WTA International event from the tier-III series taking place on the indoor
hard courts in Luxembourg City, Luxembourg. She registered a 6-3, 6-4 success over the 21-year-old Romanian to book a last eight spot on Thursday.
Despite losing to Great Britain’s Anne Keothavong in the final qualifying round, Hradecka confidently entered the main draw and upset eighth seeded Slovak Daniela Hantuchova in the first round. She then outmuscled Cadantu, ranked
104th in the Sony Ericsson WTA Premier rankings, on their first encounter and booked a last eight spot on this US$220,000 event.
Hradecka thundered into the opening set and after breaking the qualifier’s opening serve, she went 2-0 up. Despite losing her edge in the proceeding game and exchanging another break in the sixth and the seventh game, she converted
another breakpoint opportunity to her advantage in the eighth game to clinch the opener with a 6-3 win.
The beaming Czech dusted away four out of six breakpoints came across and capitalised on three out of four breakpoint opportunities to her advantage. She formulated a higher first serve share of 56 percent in contrast with Cadantu’s
36 percent and registered an impressive 65 percent.
The lucky Czech carried her momentum into the final set and after breaking Cadantu’s serve twice, she went 4-1 up. Regardless of losing a break in the sixth game and exchanging another in the following two games, the Czech kept
her serve for the last time to bag the set with a 6-4 victory.
She warded off half of the four breakpoints faced and cashed in on half of the six breakpoint chances to her advantage. Hradecka manipulated a slightly lower first serve share of 70 percent as compared to Romanian’s 74 percent
and registered a fabulous 68 percent win on it.
Next up for Hradecka is another Romanian, Monica Niculescu who triumphed over Spaniard Anabel Medina Garrigues in a three set thriller to reach this spot.
World number thirty-four, Niculescu took two and half hour to overwhelm the Spaniard resilience. She saved only one out of six breakpoints faced but converted six out of twelve breakpoint opportunities to her advantage, sealing
the victory with a 7-6(5), 3-6, 6-1 score line.
The Romanian not only avenged her lost at Estoril earlier this season but also lowered the trail by 1-2 against Garrigues.
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