Marion Bartoli defeats Andrea Petkovic to advance at Indian Wells
15th seeded French Marion Bartoli dumped 21st seeded German Andrea Petkovic in straight sets in their third round match at the 2011 BNP Paribas Open on Sunday securing a 6-4, 6-2 victory for herself.
Though the German won their last tour meeting, this time around the former top-ten player, Bartoli outplayed her opponent clinching a 2-1 lead in the pair’s official head-to-head.
Currently ranked 17th in the world, Bartoli has shown tremendous skills not only in this event but also at 2011 Qatar Ladies Open and the 2011 BMW Malaysian Open as well. She reached the semi-finals at Doha before losing
to world number one Caroline Wozniacki and then enjoyed a quarter-final run at Kuala Lumpur before being ousted by 5th seeded Czech Lucie Safarova. She rallied pass Romanian qualifier Monica Niculescu in the second round in three sets before reaching
this spot.
Despite having a lower first serve percentage of 56 percent as compared to Petkovic’s 63 percent and double faulting three times, Bartoli won the set 6-4. She broke the German’s serve three times and saved two break points which
helped her surpass the German threat.
In the second set, the Frenchwoman did not improve her stats and had an even lower first serve percentage of 55 percent as compared to Petkovic’s 88 percent. She also lost one break point. However, the French earned an impressive
72 percent win on her first serve and converted three opportunities to her advantage to clinch the set with an amazing score line of 6-2.
She will next face 2nd seeded Belgian Kim Clijsters who overpowered Italian Sara Errani in three sets. Clijsters leads the head to head series against Bartoli by 3-0. Thus it will be a worthwhile due to watch and Bartoli
despite being in her top form, needs to practice harder to overpower the Belgian threat.
Former world number one, Clijsters won titles here in 2003 and 2005 and is aiming to win another this year.
“I also know that for my next match everything will have to be a lot better,” Clijsters said. “That's what my goal will be... is trying to achieve that.”
Clijsters double faulted 13 times and had a lower first serve percentage of 70 percent as opposed to Errani’s 74 percent. Both players exchanged six breaks but the Belgian fired six aces and earned a convincing 61 percent win on
her first serve to clinch a 6-3, 2-6, 6-4 match victory.
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