Mandy Minella topples Marta Domachowska to clear round two – Baku Cup 2012
World number 82, Mandy Minella, structured a brilliantly paced triumph against the 177th ranked Pole age-fellow, Marta Domachowska, in the second round of the Baku Cup, contested at the hard courts of Azerbaijan.
The third seed Luxembourg national won the match in straight sets 6-4, 7-5 after an intense battle of an hour and 56 minutes.
It was a well deserved victory for the 26-year-old Luxembourg professional is having a marvellous breakthrough season having reached her career-high ranking of world number 78 before dropping down to 82nd spot.
Five years ago, both these players met in a Federation Cup tie. At that time, the in-form Pole sneaked a triumph in straight sets but there was nothing at all to distinguish between the two players.
Same was the case in the encounter played on the eve of Wednesday. Both players were just separated by a mere single breakpoint in each set.
Domachowska commenced the match with a commanding serve hold and exerted immense pressure on her competitor in the following game but couldn’t win a breakpoint despite creating two chances to break serve.
Suddenly, the tables were turned upon the Pole starlet who won just a single point in the following game before gifting a critical breakthrough to her foe that proved to be the pivotal moment at the end.
Minella led the scores 3-1 in the opening set and continued to hammer down her opponent with her thunderous forehand cross-court winners. However, she was unable to bag any more breakpoints in the opening set courtesy some belligerent
baseline play from her rival.
The Pole had a chance to break serve in the final game of the set but squandered it to allow her competitor a set lead. She created five opportunities in the entire set to win a breakpoint back but couldn’t convert any one of them
whereas her rival managed to sneak one of her allotted four chances.
Domachowska started the second set in miserable fashion; lost all four points on her serve and just managed to win two in the following game that drowned her to an early trail of 0-2. However, she did well to bring the scores on
level terms with a breakthrough in the fourth game.
The scores kept on ticking over in the remaining part of the set until the third seed broke serve in the 11th game of the set to take a vital lead and held her serve successfully to bag the second win of the tournament.
Mandy Minella locks horns with the Russian beauty queen, Olga Puchkova, in the round of final eight.
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