Marion Bartoli gusts away Shuai Peng in round two – Rogers Cup 2012
World number 10, Marion Bartoli, eased away to straight sets victory, 6-1, 6-3, against the 32nd ranked Chinese star, Shuai Peng, in the second round of the Rogers Cup, contested in Montreal.
On the eve of Thursday, both experienced stars locked horns for the 10th time in their professional career, with Peng in the hunt to level the head-to-head scores. However, she failed to do so and allowed Bartoli to
build a lead of two matches with 6-4 score line.
The 26-year-old Chinese was put under pressure right from the word go. She was forced to save breakpoints in the opening game of the match.
The number one Frenchwoman wasted little time in pounding on to her rival and gathered a resounding lead of 5-1 courtesy two back-to-back breakthroughs.
Peng had to fight back from a miserable position and instead she failed to hold serve for the third time in a row that ended the opening set with a quick fire from the 27-year-old French.
The second set started off with a successful breakpoint for the Chinese starlet who looked set to make a comeback in the encounter.
However, she lost her lead in the fourth game and trailed two games down by the end of the sixth game. A swap of breakpoints kept the French’s lead intact as she prepared to serve for the match.
Easy serve hold and Bartoli was away to an emphatic win.
Bartoli said of the match, "I'm disappointed I lost the first game of the second set. I just let her have it. Both of us hit the ball early, so generally speaking our matches don't last too long. But this match I thought I could
have finished faster."
Talking about her next opponent, Bartoli commented, "We're certainly not going to have long rallies. She likes dictating. I believe the winner will be the one who has the best ratio between unforced errors and winners. If I let
her step into the court, it's going to be too tough for me. So I need to hit hard. My serve will be an important factor too."
Next foe for the Frenchwoman is the fifth seed Petra Kvitova.
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