Maria Sharapova outlasts Daniela Hantuchova in the 2nd round – Bank of the West Classic 2011
Slovak Daniela Hantuchova was ousted by second seeded Russian Maria Sharapova in the second round of the Bank of the West Classic, an oldest WTA event held on the campus of Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, United States.
She suffered a 2-6, 6-2, 4-6 defeat at the hands of world number five, Sharapova on Thursday.
Ranked 21st in the Sony Ericsson WTA Premier rankings, Hantuchova pushed the seeded player to her limits and made a comeback in the second set. However, she was outclassed in two hours and twelve minutes in the second
round at the Civic Auditorium in the Taube Family Tennis Center.
A former world number one, Sharapova flashed her skills on the Californian hard courts to quickly bag the opener with a 6-2 score line. She levelled the scores at 2-2 and then unleashed her true colours to reel off last four games
in a row.
Hantuchova carried her ways in the second set and lost an early serve to trail 1-2. However, she went berserk after that as she wiped out next five games consecutively to seal the equaliser with a 6-2 win.
The Slovakian told her twitter followers, “It was a good fight tonight. The 2-0 game in the third was crucial. We had an unbelievable rally and it changed from there...”
She was leading 2-0 in the final set as she earned the desiderated break in the second game. However, the Slovak lost her concentration afterwards and gifted away her serve in the very next game. Hantuchova then lost her another
serve in the fifth game and eventually went 4-2 down. She couldn’t recover and sealed the decider with a 4-6 loss.
Overall, Hantuchova committed fewer double faults and unforced errors and clobbered a much better first serve share of 65 percent as compared to Russian’s 59 percent. She also registered a convincing 56 percent win on it and saved
four out of nine breakpoints faced. However, it wasn’t enough as she capitalised on only four out of twelve breakpoint opportunities to her advantage.
Hantuchova praised her seeded rival as she tweeted later, “I had my chances but unfortunately facing someone like Maria in the second round of a tournament is never easy!”
Sharapova will go on to face the winner of the match between her compatriot Maria Kirilenko and a former world number one, American Serena Williams.
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