Maria Kirilenko upsets Julia Goerges in the 1st round – Bank of the West Classic 2011
Russian Maria Kirilenko mowed down German Julia Goerges, in the first round of the Bank of the West Classic Tournament 2011. The players were meeting for the first time on the outdoor hard courts of the Taube Family Tennis Center, Stanford University, California. The Russian won the match 6-2, 6-3 in one hour, fifteen minutes and twenty seconds.
The 24-year-old Maria won the toss and serving first; did not ace, however, she served with extreme precision with no double faults and although she gave a break point to her opponent’s advantage, she was able to break her opponent three times. She was capable to hit sixty seven percent of the first serves on target along with winning a walloping sixty three percent of total service points. Her positioning was superb on the court and it gave her an edge to rebound all her shots that were aimed at her.
Julia, on the other hand, had managed to hit only forty eight percent of her first serve on target and was able to attain a meagre thirty eight percent win in both her first return and second return. Due to a poor defence she was unable to save any of her break points but was able to clinch one out of the two break point chances that she faced.
Maria had won sixty percent of her total set points where as her rival (Julia) had twenty percent fewer than her in the total set.
Julia opened the set by throwing two aces and winning seventy five percent of the first serve opening the set. However, in the next few seconds she lost control and hit two double faults on the net. Whereas, Maria’s precision had weakened from the previous set and she struck one double fault hitting the net but managed to smash an ace.
Goerges had almost half of the total return serve points of Maria’s (Goerges had twenty six percent and Maria had fifty percent). Her defence was unstable and she was not able to save three of her break points, although she won a hundred percent of break points faced.
On the other hand, even though Maria was unable to save the single break point that she had committed, she had capitalised on two more break points than her opponents. She had a strong return serve and like a board at the back of the court she re-coiled all the shot that were aimed at her. She won the set in an easy victory of 6-3.
The 24-year-old Maria dominated both the sets and her presence was felt on the court. Winning both the sets was a piece of cake for the world number 25; she will now be facing the thirteen time grand slam winner Serena Williams in the second round of the tournament.
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