Maria Sharapova disposes of Tamarine Tanasugarn in 2nd round – Toray Pan Pacific Open 2011
The world number two Maria Sharapova disposed of Thai Tamarine Tanasugarn in the second round of the Toray Pan Pacific Open 2011. It took only one hour and thirty one minutes for the number two seed Sharapova to get rid of the
Thai Tanasugarn on outdoor hard courts of Ariake Colosseum, Tokyo, Japan. The Russian (Sharapova) secured a 6-2, 7-5 victory against the unseeded Tanasugarn on the 26th of September 2011.
Crowd favourite Maria Sharapova, had won the title here two years ago and was also champion in 2005. She returned as the number 2 seed after a fine season reaching her highest ranking since returning from a shoulder surgery in
2009.
Tanasugarn opted to serve first against the second seeded Russian, who is much younger than the Thai and Tanasugarn held serve. The hard court being the Russian’s favourite surface, she held her serve in the second game of the
opening set and both the players were able to place themselves on the scoreboard.
By the third and fourth game Sharapova was leading with a 3-1 as she held serve again but also broke her adversary. By using her break-serve-break method Sharapova broke the Thai for the second time in the set and had further increased
the space to a 4-1 lead.
During the last two games, the players held serve and the opening set was conquered by the three time Grand Slam champion Sharapova in a quick 6-2 victory.
Opting to serve first in the second set was again Tanasugarn, who got off on the wrong footing as she lost the first game to Sharapova. The second seeded Russian won on her serve and again broke the unseeded Thai to roll the scoreboard
at 3-0.
Even though, given the chance Sharapova would’ve wanted to further increase the gap, she was unable to hold serve and endorsed a game to her opponent. Matching her opponent’s style, Tanasugarn too held serve in the fifth game.
The score then progressed on even terms in the following four games, as each player held her own but in the tenth game Tanasugarn broke Sharapova to round off the score at 5-5. It was unfortunate to see Sharapova let her opponent
make a comeback from 2-5. Nevertheless, the Russian broke the Thai in the eleventh game and in the twelfth game she smashed three successive aces at 15-15 to serve the set at 7-5 and secure a spot in the third round of the event.
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