Marion Bartoli trounces Maria Kirilenko to reach the last eight – Sony Ericsson Open 2012
French tennis icon, Marion Bartoli, slaughtered the 25-years-old Russian, Maria Kirilenko, to book a spot in the quarter-finals of the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami. On Monday, Bartoli eased away with her fifth head-to-head win against
the 22nd ranked Russian in straight sets 6-1, 6-2.
The Russian has just defeated the French once and that was almost five years ago during the JP Morgan Chase Open in Los Angeles. She has never had a good time against her and that was proved on the eve of Monday.
It was the struggling Russian who kicked-off the match proceedings. Soon she saw herself a break down in the third game and failed to save another breakpoint in the following serve game. Scores scuttled past to 1-4 and the Russian
was finding it hard to stand firm against the powerful double-handed shots of her opponent.
Kirilenko won just three points afterwards in the opening set and donated another breakthrough that gave a comfortable set lead to the French. Bartoli was cruising along and finding the sweet part of her racquet whilst the Russian
was hardly able to keep the ball in the bounds of the court.
The second set witnessed serve holds upfront at both ends before an exchange of breakthroughs took place. It seemed like Kirilenko has found some form but she fell apart in the sixth game; losing yet another breakpoint to the seventh
ranked French.
Nothing was going right for Kirilenko and she lost heart to force her way back into the match. It was just a matter of time before the French icon gobbled up the win. Another breakthrough for the double-handed specialist from France
confirmed her place into the last eight of the tournament.
On her triumph, the French tennis ace commented in a post-match interview, "I had a really tough match yesterday against Simona Halep but it helped me to come out onto the court sharper today. Maria's game suits me well, which
helped too. But it was still a tough match. There were some close games and I had to win them to make the score look easier than it really was."
She will be up against the reigning world number one and the Australian Open champion, Victoria Azarenka of Belarus, in the next round. Azarenka bullied her way back into the match against Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia to sustain
her unbeaten run in the 2012.
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