Marion Bartoli defeats Ayumi Morita in 2nd round – Toray Pan Pacific Open 2011
Opening the second round of the Toray Pan Pacific Open 2011 was seventh seeded French Marion Bartoli who defeated home favourite Japanese Ayumi Morita. After battling for two hours and eighteen minutes on the outdoor hard courts
of the Ariake Colosseum, Tokyo, Japan, the seventh seeded Bartoli routed Morita by surviving a mid match slip of 6-3, 0-6, 6-3.
Serving first with a lot of confidence was Bartoli, having never lost a single match to Morita. The two players expertly held serve in the first three games to roll the scoreboard at 2-1. However, first to break was Bartoli, who
capitalized on an early break in the fourth game and then went on to holding her serve in the fifth.
The two contenders then broke each other back-to-back in the seventh and eighth game but Bartoli was still a break and game up and was leading with a 5-3 score. In the ninth game she served for the opening set and by restricting
her rival to only three games, she clogged a comprehensive victory.
Starting the second set was Morita, who shifted into top gear and learnt from her mistakes in the first set. Powering from the very start was Morita who not only held her serves but also broke Bartoli’s serve in every game to reel
off a quick bagel (6-0) victory.
By the end of the two sets, the players each had bagged a set and were now looking to bag the second. Opening the decisive set was Morita, who was unable to keep her power game alive and lost the first game but the Japanese was
not ready to throw in the towel and broke back in the second game to equalize the score at 1-1.
Contrarily, Bartoli was annoyed and by breaking her adversary in the third game, she taught her a lesson. The two then held serve for the following five games and at this point Bartoli was leading 5-3. They switched serve and it
was Morita, who was serving to keep a foot in the door but unfortunately her backhand swing went wayward and she ended up giving the match to Bartoli.
The Frenchwomen was able to secure a berth in the second round of the event by defeating her old fangled rival.
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