Marion Bartoli escapes the scare against Vania King in round two – Mercury Insurance Open 2012
World number 10, Marion Bartoli of France, was tested to her limits in her opening clash of the Mercury Insurance Open on Wednesday but manoeuvred her way to victory against the 59th ranked local contender, Vania King. The top seeded Frenchwoman kept engaged in a taxing battle for three hours and 10 minutes before she finally come out as the winner at 6-4, 5-7, 6-4, to book a berth in the quarter-finals of the tournament.
It was a fierce encounter between the two contestants and at one moment, Bartoli was heading for an upset outcome. She had the upper hand early in the contest by clinching the opener comprehensively but a valiant comeback from the 23-year-old American stunned everyone present at the hard courts of Carlsbad, USA. King dug deep in the second set and levelled the set scores at 1-1 to enforce a decisive third one. She was leading 3-1 in the decider and was well on course to a stunning victory but the top seed contender came up with sheer class and brilliance, reeling off four games to turn the tables on King in style.
Bartoli’s error-ridden game play almost cost her quarter-final berth in the tournament. She had a staggering double faults count of 18 in the matchup but her nine break point conversions proved to be sufficient for her in the end. She dropped her serve eight out of 20 occurrences and secured 40 out of 66 first serve points en route to victory. The overall match statistics don’t show much difference between these two players but it appeared to be just a matter of time that Bartoli cashed in her vital chances to come out as the winner in the end.
The Frenchwoman defeated King in their last year’s encounter at Osaka, Japan, and her Wednesday’s victory gave her a 4-2 lead in the head-to-head series over the American youngster. Bartoli has to wait for the second round battle between fifth seed Christina McHale and unseeded Japanese, Misaki Doi, to conclude. These two contenders will go one-on-one against each other on Wednesday’s eve and the winner will take on Bartoli in the quarter-final draw.
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