Marion Bartoli upset by Kristina Barrois in the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix
German wild card entrant, Kristina Barrois downed eighth seeded French Marion Bartoli in straight sets to make a surprise quarter-final entry in the 2011 Porsche Tennis Grand Prix on Wednesday.
The 29-year-old German displayed exceptional skills to upset the world number 12, Bartoli by a 6-4, 6-2 score line at the Porsche Arena. It was their first duel against each other with the German now leading the head-to-head series against Bartoli by 1-0.
Ranked 79th in the WTA Premier rankings, Barrois hasn’t had much progress this season but she re-formed her strategy at Stuttgart and defeated Czech Lucie Safarova in the first round. She then triumphed over the Frenchwoman in one hour and twenty-five minutes to book her spot in the quarters.
In the first set, the German lost her opening serve to trail 0-2 in the beginning but she roared back by snatching her breaking Bartoli's serve in the next game and eventually levelled the scores at 2-2. Later she held her remaining serves spectacularly and broke the Frenchwoman’s serve again in the seventh game to clinch the set with a 6-4 win.
Barrois raised her level of game in the second set and went on savage mode to win the first four games in a row. She held her serves plausibly in the remaining games to seal the set with a convincing 6-2 score line.
Overall the German played amazingly as she committed zero double faults, fired four ferocious aces and found eleven breakpoint opportunities of which she converted four to her advantage to help her win comfortably.
Bartoli on the other hand has been in top form this season as she made semi-final berths at Brisbane and Doha, quarterfinal berths at Hobart and Kuala Lumpur, and reached the final at Indian Wells before losing to top seeded Caroline Wozniacki. Regardless of earning a breadstick in her opening match against Bulgarian Tsvetana Pironkova, she showed dismal performance in this match and clobbered several unforced errors which made. As a result she exits Stuttgart from the second round.
Barrois will next face Agnieszka Radwanska who also upset a seeded player to reach this spot. The Pole upset 3rd seeded Italian Francesca Schiavone with a breadstick in eighty-eight minutes.
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