Maria Jose Sanchez crashes out of Internazionali BNL D’Italia as Ekaterina Makarova moves ahead
Defending champion Spanish Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez was ousted from the opening round of the 2011 Internazionali BNL D’Italia by Russian Ekaterina Makarova as she suffered a bagel defeat in the opening set on Monday. She registered
a 0-6, 7-5, 4-6 defeat against the 22-year-old Russian to exit the WTA Premier 5 event held in Rome, Italy.
Currently ranked at 84, Sanchez entered at Foro Italico as an unseeded player last year and surprised the whole tennis world by winning the title. However, she wasn’t that fortunate this time and barely survived the first set.
The Spaniard made a comeback in the second set and fought well in the decider but it wasn’t enough to hold back the Russian.
The former top twenty player hasn’t had much progress this season and as she extended her losing streak to three matches after exiting from the first round of this clay court tournament.
World number 37 Makarova on the other hand displayed tremendous skills at Australian Open where she reached the fourth round but since then she hasn’t moved far. Despite her inconsistent form, the Russian earned a bagel in this
two hour and fourteen minutes match to book a second round spot where she will face her compatriot and seventh seed Maria Sharapova,
The Russian stormed into the first set and unleashed flurry of ground strokes to win all six games in a row to clinch a bagel victory. She played flawlessly and produced a much better first serve share of 76 percent as compared
to the Spaniard’s 39 percent. Makarova faced zero breakpoint and converted three out of six breakpoint opportunities to her advantage.
28-year-old Sanchez roared back in the second set and reeled off the first three games in a row through her blistering forehands. Later she lost her serve and levelled the score but broke the youngsters serve in the last game again
to seal the equaliser by winning seven games to five.
The Spaniard couldn’t keep up her momentum in the decider and lost her serve early on. She quickly snatched the break back but lost another serve to lose the set with a 4-6 defeat. Sanchez had a higher first serve share of 73 percent
as opposed to Makarova’s 65 percent and registered an impressive 68 percent win on it. She also smacked two aces and saved three breakpoints faced the she only managed to convert one out of eight breakpoint opportunities to her advantage which made the difference.
Eleventh seeded Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova will be joining the Spaniard as she was ousted by 32-year-old Hungarian Greta Arn in three sets.
The seeded Russian won the first set easily and dragged the remaining two sets to tiebreaker but only to see her exiting from the tournament.
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