Marion Bartoli layoffs Ayumi Morita in the quarterfinal – Bank of the West Classic 2011
The French, Marion Bartoli had contested against the Japanese, Ayumi Morita in the quarterfinal round of the Bank of the West Classic on the 29th of July 2011. They battled each other on hard courts at the Taube Family Tennis Center Stanford University, California. Bartoli had won the first set 6-1 but in the second set Ayumi retired and hence, gave the match to her opponent in 44 minutes and 24 seconds.
The two had taken to the hard courts four times prior to this event and the last run between the old-fangled rivals was at the Sony Ericsson Open tennis tournament, Miami, Florida, USA where Marion won the set 6-3 2-6 6-1.
Marion had a 4-0 in their head to head. It was time for the Japanese to restore her dignity against her however, fate had planned something else.
Bartoli won the pitch and smashed three aces and won eighty eight percent of the first serve opening the set. However, in the next second serve her accuracy faltered and she struck two line faults on the net. Her second return serve was a commendable display of return shots aimed at her opponent and she won eighty percent of her 2nd return points. Her defence was strong and she did not allow her opponent to avail the only break point she had struck, she was also able to win twenty nine percent of her break point chances and won the set because of an above average performance in the entire set.
On the contrary, Ayumi had struck only one fault and was not able to ace even once. The Japanese had an average serve but her defence was shaky and unstable, she gave her opponent two break points and was unable to capitalize on her opponents break points. During the set she took a tumble lunging to reach a volley at 3-0, 30-0. The Japanese then briefly went for an examination, and the match then resumed. However, Morita lost the set because of her weak defence.
However, the second set was not played because of Morita’s ankle injury and hence, she retired from the match, letting her opponent take a 5-0 lead after this event.
The 27 year old Bartoli was born on the 2nd of October, 1984; she reached her highest ranking of world number 9 on the 22nd of October 2007. Bartoli has won six WTA singles titles throughout her career and this year she has had forty wins and sixteen loses. During her professional career she has played six hundred and sixty matches out of which she has won four hundred and nine. The French’s most notable performance was when she defeated two former world number 1 players; Jelena Jankovic and Justine Henin in 2009 and 2007 respectively.
The current world number 9, Marion Bartoli will be facing Dominika Cibulkova in the semi-final of the Bank of the West Classic 2011.
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