Marion Bartoli rushes past Melinda Czink into 2nd round – HP Japan Open 2011
Second seeded French Marion Bartoli got the better of Hungarian Melinda Czink in the opening draw of the HP Japan Open 2011. The players took up the swords on outdoor hard courts of the Utsubo Tennis Center in Osaka, Japan. After
one hour and twenty six minutes, the Frenchwomen scored in straight sets of 6-2, 6-2 over her Hungarian challenger on Monday the 10th of October 2011.
The players had contested twice prior to this event and were meeting for the third time. The last time they had duelled was in 2009 at Charleston on clay courts. Bartoli had managed to qualify into the semi-final by ousting Czink
in straight sets of 6-4, 6-1 during the quarterfinal.
The Hungarian decided to serve first for the opening round of the match but she double faulted on her second serve and gave away an early break to her adversary. Bartoli not only capitalized on the early break but also held her
serve and placed herself on the scoreboard at 2-0. Czink made a return in the third game and in the fourth she broke back to equalize the score at 2-2.
Bartoli was in no mood of a chase and broke her Hungarian adversary for the second time as she took a 4-2 lead on her serve. The second seed was now only two games away, while, Czink was unable to win any games and was restricted
to only two games. In the last two games, Bartoli again repeated the feat and conquered a 6-2 victory of the opening set.
Opening for the second round of the match was also Czink and she again got off to an appalling start as she had erred and gifted a game to her adversary. Bartoli was again successful in placing herself at 2-0 as she was able to
hold her serve in the second game. In the following two games as the players held serve, the scoreboard was rotated to 3-1.
During the fifth and the sixth game the players won a game each on alternate service games and the scoreboard moved at 4-2. The second seeded French was lucky to capitalize on a break in the seventh game and in doing so; she was
now only a game away from victory. As she served for the match in the eighth game, she smashed three consecutive aces and bagged the set and the match.
After winning this match Bartoli increased the head-to-head score to 3-0 between the two players and reserved a spot in the second round of the HP Japan Open 2011.
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