Michaella Krajicek stuns Rebecca Marino to get a semi-final berth – Bell Challenge 2011
Another upset result in the quarter-final rounds of the Bell Challenge, as the world number 50, Rebecca Marino of Canada crashed out of the tournament at the hands of the unseeded Dutch competitor, Michaella Krajicek, on Friday night.
Seeded at number four in the tournament, Marino failed to live up to the expectations of the home crowd and crumbled to Krajicek in straight sets 1-6, 3-6, to let her into the round of four. The Dutch took less than an hour to wrap up her surprise victory against the fourth seed and advanced to the semi-final draws of the $220,000 WTA (Women’s Tennis Association) event.
It was the 18th victory for Krajicek in the running season and the second consecutive one against Marino in singles encounters. The Dutch also registered a straight sets victory in their last meeting at Birmingham in 2010 and her Friday’s win against the Canadian levelled their head-to-head series at 2-2.
Despite of a below par serve of just 51 per cent, Krajicek reeled off 21 out of 22 first serve points in the game to come out as the winner. She crafted seven break opportunities in the game and converted four of them to outplay the home favourite from the competition with the utmost ease. Marino utterly failed to register a single break point conversion in the entire matchup and continued spraying errant strokes throughout the contest to finish on the losing side.
Krajicek took hold of the opener with an early serve break in the third game and then launched a series of forays upon her opponent to keep pushing her out of the contest. The Dutch nailed three consecutive break point conversions to race through the set number one in just opening twenty minutes of play to get one up.
Marino posed some resistance earlier on the in the following set but eventually dropped her serve for the fourth time in the match in the sixth game. Krajicek sealed victory by pocketing the second set at 6-3, to book a date with the sixth seed Barbora Zahlavova-Strycova of Czech Republic in the final four.
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