Maria Sanchez battles past Yvonne Meusburger to reach the semis – NURNBERGER Gastein Ladies 2011
Spaniard Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez rallied past the local star, Yvonne Meusburger in troublesome three sets at the NURNBERGER Gastein Ladies 2011 on Friday. She registered a 7-6(5), 4-6, 6-3 victory over Meusburger to book a
semi-final spot at this WTA International event held on the clay courts in Bad Gastein, Austria.
Sanchez and Meusburger both played their best tennis on the Austrian clay courts and displayed their exceptional skills on their first head-to-head. The Spaniard, however, edged past Meusburger in a three set thriller in almost
three hours to secure a last four spot in this event.
Ranked 54th in the Sony Ericsson WTA Premier rankings, Sanchez was trailing at 2-5 and was one game away to lose the opener when she roared back with a fitting reply. She broke back in the eighth game to keep her hopes
alive in the match. The Spaniard continued her winning run to reel off remaining games to level the scores at 5-5. She then exchanged another break and extended the set to a tie-breaker. Sanchez prevailed in it and eventually bag the opening set with a 7-6(5)
score line.
The Austrian, ranked 130th, capitalised on her higher first serve share of 85 percent as compared to Sanchez’s 51 percent. She held on to her entire serves till she broke the Spaniard’s serve in the eighth game, lost
her serve in the proceeding game and finally clinched the equaliser by breaking Meusburger’s serve once again in the tenth game. She registered a convincing 6-4 win and levelled the set scores with Sanchez.
The Spaniard raised the bar of her game in the final set as she saved all six breakpoints conceded to keep her serve and converted two out of three breakpoint opportunities to her advantage to seal the set with a 6-3 score line.
"Yvonne was fighting the whole match. I had to work for all the points and it was tough to beat her," Martinez Sanchez said. "It was a little bit crazy - we went on court at 4:45 and it was raining again... at least we finished
today though, because playing two matches in one day tomorrow would have been difficult."
Up next for the 28-year-old Spaniard is the winner of the match between her compatriot, Carla Suarez Navarro and Ukrainian Kateryna Bondarenko.
Martinez Sanchez commented on her potential semi-final rivals. "Both are great players. Carla plays really well; maybe Kateryna has had her best results on hard court, but you never know what's going to happen."
Bondarenko was leading 5-2 in the opening set when the match got suspended.
Tags: