Mona Barthel crushes Alexandra Panova in the second round qualifiers of the Andalucia Tennis Experience
Mona Barthel of Germany defeated the qualifying seventh seed Alexandra Panova of Russia in the second round of the qualifying draw at Marbella on Sunday. The German wrapped up her straight sets victory at 6-3, 6-1, in one hour and forty eight minutes.
Sheer domination from Barthel gave no opportunity to the Russian to settle down in the contest. Her serve lacked something to be desired, reaching just 59 per cent accuracy but she skilfully compensated for it by collecting points on critical occasions. The German spilled out five double faults in the game and clouted three aces en route to victory.
Panova served well and had plenty of opportunities throughout the contest, which she squandered away carelessly. She was awarded 12 chances to register break points in the game but the bleak Russian converted just two out of them to her advantage. She collected 57 while Barthel clinched 76 of total 133 points being played in the contest.
The 22-year-old Russian had a good start to the contest, capitalizing upon three early double faults from Barthel. Panova dropped her serve in the second game, but belted two break points in a row to lead 3-2 in the opener. Barthel took the charge of the game from that point and launched a series of forays to the Russian, including frequent raids to the net and converting some juicy volleys into cross-court winners.
20-year old Barthel stung three straight serve breaks, making it four for the first set, to race to 6-3. She bagged 56 per cent of the total points in the opener and successfully defended four break points to get one up in the contest.
The Russian slumped further in the next set and dropped her first serve to a mere 55 per cent. Some aggressive moves form Panova earned her six chances where she could have break her opponent’s serve, but some errant strokes from her racquet never allowed her to convert any of the opportunity.
Three aces and two double faults were recorded from Barthel in the second set but she kept her shots under control to avoid unforced errors. She broke early in the set to lead 3-1 and then kept consolidating with attacking manoeuvres to pressurize the German competitor. A decisive serve break at 4-1 left Barthel serving for the match and she closed out victory on the most convincing note at 6-1.
Barthel goes through to take on the qualifying top seed, Maria Elena Camerin of Italy. Camerin stood victorious against Sesil Karatantcheva of Kazakhstan in straight sets, 6-3, 6-2, in the second round qualifiers at Marbella.
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