Lucie Safarova thrashes Marion Bartoli at the BMW Malaysian Open 2011 quarterfinals
Fifth seed Lucie Safarova scored a spectacular victory over Frenchwoman Marion Bartoli, defeating the second seed in straight sets 6-1, 6-4 in the fourth and last quarterfinal of the BMW Malaysian Open 2011.
Safarova, who hails from the Czech Republic, took less than 90 minutes to oust her opponent.
Safarova won the match comfortably, entering the first set with her signature hard-hitting style. She managed to convert a break point against Bartoli very soon, breaking the player in the second game. Safarova then proved herself extremely resilient, refusing
to give up the advantage gained by the break point. She also took advantage of her fearsome groundstrokes and took point after point in the first set to give her opponent a considerable disadvantage.
In addition to this, she also scored one ace and stayed away from double faults while Bartoli could not score a single ace and helped Safarova’s purpose further by committing five double faults. She won an impressive 65 per cent of the total points to win
the first set 6-1.
Bartoli seemed to recover some of the skill which helped her to win her second-round match against Ekaterina Ivanova earlier in the tournament.
The world number 17 managed to score two aces and double faulted just twice, defending 3 of 5 break points and converting 1 of 2 against Safarova. The Czech player had already made it to 5-2 with a double break when Bartoli came blazing into the set to win
two more games and raise the score line to 5-4. However, Safarova did not allow her the opportunity to convert the set into a decider, taking the next game to win the match 6-1, 6-4.
Overall, Safarova scored one ace and committed one double fault. In addition to this, she managed to defend 2 of 3 break points.
Bartoli, on the other hand, scored two aces but committed eight double faults to give up the advantage on her serve. In addition to this, she was also broken 4 out of 8 times during the match. Safarova lost just 15 points on her serve. Throughout the match,
Safarova played excellent tennis to take 71 points from a total of 121.
The Czech Republic tennis pro will now be facing Australian Jarmila Groth in the semi-finals of the BMW Malaysian Open. Groth qualified for the next round with a hard-earned victory over Ayumi Morita of Japan, defeating the seeded player 7-5, 3-6, 7-5.
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