Marion Bartoli dumps Jamie Hampton to clear round one – US Open 2012
World number 11, Marion Bartoli, ended the resistance of the American booming starlet, Jamie Hampton, in the US Open first round. She won the opening set 6-3 but was forced to dig deep in the second and win the tie-breaker 7-6(5).
The 22-year-old American commenced the match in poor style; lost a breakpoint in the first game and went down to a trail of 0-2 after the number one Frenchwoman struck four startling winners on the trot.
Hampton looked in a bit of trouble but she bounced back well and held her serve to 40:15. The 27-year-old French followed the footsteps of her opponent and sustained her lead.
The American bagged another serve hold to love and kept on hitting back her opponent to explore that lost breakpoint and level the scores. However, the French didn’t allow her rival to bounce back into the encounter as she refused
to lose any point on her serve especially towards the ending stages of the set.
Hampton was under the cosh; had to hold serve to keep the set alive in the ninth game. She faltered miserably; played two sub-standard returns that went straight into the throat of the net. It was a welcome breakpoint for the French
who led the set scores by one nil at that time.
The start to the second set for the American youngster was similar to the first. Bartoli broke serve in the second game and took a resounding lead of by two successive serve holds upfront. However, the confidence of the American
wasn’t tore apart as she kept on knocking at the door.
Finally, Hampton got rewarded for her efforts in the seventh game. She won the first breakpoint of the match and held her serve in commanding fashion to deprive her opponent from running away with the show.
No more breakpoints were witnessed in the remaining portion of the set that enforced the tie-breaker round into play. Bartoli with immense experience of these situations outsmarted her foe and won the match.
Marion Bartoli takes on the Swiss professional, Romina Oprandi, in the second round of the competition.
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