Marion Bartoli, Stephanie Foretz Gacon advance at the Internationaux se Strasbourg
Top seeded Marion Bartoli secured a comfortable victory over Japanese Kimiko Date-Krumm on Tuesday to advance into the second round of 2011 Internationaux se Strasbourg in France.
Bartoli made a brilliant start to the match as she broke the serve in the very first game of the opening set. She took the attack to her opponent with every available opportunity and made the challenger run for her money. The Frenchwoman
smashed her blazing forehand and backhand winners all over the court and made another serve break in seventh game to take the opener 6-2.
The second set also followed a similar pattern. Bartoli continued to pressurise her opponent with some high quality tennis and broke the serve three times in the set to seal the match in straight sets. Krumm did well to break back
in one of the games but she was no match for Bartoli.
Bartoli’s serve was her real asset as she fired 5 aces to earn vital serve ace points. She claimed 78 percent of the points on her first serve and also secured 63 per cent of the points on serve return. With her wonderful ground
strokes, Bartoli created a number of break chances and then converted six of them to establish her control over the contest.
Contrastingly, Krumm struggled to execute her game plan and committed a number of unforced errors in the process. She leaked points at crucial situations during the match and paid the price. The Japenese managed to win only a mere
39 percent points on her first serve. Her weak serve played a major part in deciding the outcome of the game.
Winner of five WTA titles, Bartoli has been in decent form since the year 2011 has started. She put up a brilliant show to reach the semi-finals at Qatar Ladies Open. At the prestigious BNP Paribas Open she made it to the final
where she fell to world number Caroline Wozniacki. Following her consistent performances on the tour, the Frenchwoman improved her WTA rankings significantly. She will be eyeing another solid performance her on the red clay courts of Strasbourg as she bids
for her sixth WTA title.
Ranked 11th in the world, Bartoli will take on Elena Baltacha in her next match-up at the Women’s Tennis Association tournament.
Meanwhile qualifier Stephanie Foretz Gacon continued her impressive run in the tournament as she defeated Ukrainian Alona Bondarenko 6-4, 6-1 to book her place in the second round.
Gacon looked in great touch and created match winning opportunities with her all round performance. She broke the serve five times in the match and required only one hour and six minutes dispatching her opponent. Her next round
opponent will be Czech Lucie Hradecka who defeated Ahsha Rolle of United States 6-3, 6-4.
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