Lucie Safarova defeats Simona Halep in the 2nd round – Rogers Cup 2011
Czech Lucie Safarova and Romanian Simona Halep met for the first time in their professional career as they took on each other in the second round of the 2011 Rogers Cup on the hard courts of the Rexall Centre in York University,
Toronto, Canada. Safarova won the match in a straight set victory of 6-2, 6-4.
Getting off to a poor start was the 19- year-old Halep, who with a nervous demeanor committed 2 net balls and hence gave two points to her opponent, whereas, Safarova’s shots were meticulous in her precision as she struck zero
double faults.
Meanwhile, Halep had 69% of her first serve on targets but was unable to achieve that in her wins of the first and second serve and hence, had 22% fewer points than her opponent’s. On the contrary, the Czech had hacked her opponent’s
weakness and hence, served brutal shots that broke her form, which aided in her achieving 75% of her total service points.
Safarova’s return was not something on which I would bet my money but she did manage to return a couple of shots which bagged her an average 47% win in her total returns, as opposed to her opponent, who won only 6 out of 24 points,
making it a bare minimum win of 25% in the total return points of the set.
It was just not Halep’s day and with her failing defence she could neither save any break points nor was she capable of winning any, but the world number 32 Safarova, had a completely different ball game and was able to save 3
out of 3 break points on her serve, along with, breaking her opponent twice, she got the edge she needed and served her opponent the set by accomplishing 59% of her total set score.
The tone was set for the second set and although, Halep performed better in return in this set than the previous, she was unable to make the cut to take the match to a tie-breaker and instead lost the set with 5 points fewer than
Safarova’s.
Opening the second set was Safarova who wanted to bag this victory and make the deal, which, eventually she did, and although, her accuracy failed her as she was extremely jittery and struck 3 line faults, she still managed to
hit an ace and hit 79% of her first serve on targets.
Even though, Halep had attained 13% more points in her total return from the previous set and a percent more in her total service points, unfortunately her numbers were still far behind than Safarova’s, who had won 62% in her service
points, along with, 46% in her total returns. She was able to bag the set with a total of 53% win in her total set points.
After winning both the sets in one hour and forty one minutes, she secured a place for herself in the third round of the Rogers Cup, where she will be facing the Italian Francesca Schiavone.
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