Mathilde Johansson commences the French Open campaign with a tight win – Tennis Special
World number 93, Mathilde Johansson, got through to the second round of the Roland Garros French Open at the expense of the 103rd ranked Aussie star, Anastasia Rodionova. She bounced back a set down to save a tie-breaker
in the second and dodged an upset in the third. Final scores registered in favour of the French star were 5-7, 7-6(6), 6-4.
After three years, Johansson had her revenge of the loss against the 30-year-old Aussie. It was the Toray Pan Pacific Open in Japan when they first faced off and Rodionova eased to a straight sets triumph to take a head-to-head
lead of 1-0. However, the scores are back in the balance and more importantly the local player has gone through to the next round that will attract a lot more crowd.
An exchange of breakthroughs commenced the match in an untraditional fashion. However, the local clasped a serve hold in the third game and moved the scores further to 2-1. A double swap of breakpoints in the following four games;
finally the visitor was able to hold her serve in the eighth game and kept the scores together at 4-4.
No drama was witnessed in the following two games as well but the local players couldn’t win a single point in the most critical stage of the match; lost the serve game and sunk to a trail of 5-6. Rodionova took full advantage
of the situation and just dropped one point on her way to the first set upset.
Trailing one set down, Johansson saved a couple of breakpoints but couldn’t hold her opening serve game. However, she jumped back with a break back in the following game but gifted the lead back to her rival in the third game.
She was down with a break and sunk to a trail of 3-5 with another dismal serve game.
However, a double breakthrough in the following three games kept her chances alive and denied the Aussie starlet from registering an upset. A tie-breaker round was enforced to decide the set and finally the resistance paid off
for the French who held the Aussie from running away with the show.
A swap of breakpoints in the third set hinted a nervy start. Rodionova was denied of another serve hold and Johansson trashed the visitor with three breathtaking winners to hold the serve and lead the scores 3-1. The scores kept
ticking over and there were no more breakpoints traded between the players. The early lead for the French proved pivotal and the Aussie couldn’t break back, hence, lost the match.
Mathilde Johansson awaits the winner of the match between the Romanian booming starlet, Simona Halep, and the 24th seed Czech, Petra Cetkovska. Halep is in terrific form at the moment and there is a huge probability
of an upset that can wipe off the seeded Czech in the opening round. Cetkovska has not been able to discover her form but and she is up against the 20-year-old enthusiastic tennis icon who is capable of capsizing players of her class.
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