Lucie Safarova defeats Heather Watson to reach the quarter-finals – AEGON International 2012
World number 21, Lucie Safarova of Czech Republic, avenged her loss from the British tennis prodigy, Heather Watson, in the second round of the AEGON International on Wednesday. The seventh seeded Czech took one hour and 29 minutes
to wrap up victory in straight sets, 7-6(5), 6-1, earning a place in the quarter-finals of the grass-court event in Eastbourne, England.
These two contestants have already encountered each other at this year’s Mutua Madrid Open and Watson stunned the superior ranked Czech in straight sets, 6-2, 6-1. Safarova came up with a fitting reply in Wednesday’s battle and
hunted down the 20-year-old Brit in straight sets to level the head-to-head series at 1-1 against her.
It was a fierce battle at the start, with both contenders labouring extremely hard to get the better of one another early in the contest. Action started off right from the first game of the match, with the seventh seeded Czech
breaking her opponent to lead 2-0. Watson retaliated after a couple of games and nailed her first serve break of the day in the fourth game to level the scores at 2-2. Further exchange of break points was seen in the seventh and the 10 game, dragging the set
scores to 6-6 and bringing a tie-breaker round into play.
The decider also went to the wire and scores got tied at 5-5. Watson thumped a forehand shot into the net, awarding the all-important mini-break to her Safarova, who capitalized on it to seal the opening set at 7-6(5).
Once getting into her winning groove, seventh seed Safarova never looked back in the following set. She dropped her serve in the very first game of the set but it ignited the rage mode in her and she came up with three successive
break points to absolutely dismantle her opponent. The Czech broke the British serve in second, fourth and sixth games of the second set to seal victory with a breadstick at 6-1.
The Czech starlet delivered 68 per cent of her first serve on target and secured 27 out of 41 points on it. She converted five out of eight break points in the contest, whilst Watson could register three out of four serve breaks
to finish on the losing side in the end.
Safarova will face the fourth seeded French powerhouse, Marion Bartoli, in the quarter-final round of the AEGON International on Thursday. Bartoli registered a resounding 6-2,6-2, victory over Aleksandra Wozniak in the second round
of the tournament.
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