Mona Barthel drowns Anne Keothavong to move into the second qualifiers - Dubai Duty Free Camps. 2012
German professional, Mona Barthel, took the 28-years-old Briton, Anne Keothavong, in the first qualifying round of the Dubai Duty Free Championship, ousting her in straight sets 6-3, 6-2. The contest was played on hard courts
at Decoturf II in Dubai, UAE.
Both players shared the four previous head-to-head matches in equal ratio of 2:2, with Barthel having the recent triumph in the opening round of the Australian Open tournament in Melbourne, Australia.
Keothavong had a splendid start to the match with a successful breakpoint in the first game. The lead was doubled in the following game with a comprehensive hold. It looked all fruitful for the Briton but her glory was short
lived; the German got hold of the proceedings and broke serve in the fourth game to diminish any advantage taken by her opponent; scores were tied at 2-2 at that stage.
A shift in the momentum backfired for the Briton who failed to hold another serve in the sixth game; furthermore lost five games in a row with scores progressing to 5-2 in favour of her opponent. Both players registered successful
serve holds in the following two games and the set was bagged by the German with her opponent frustrated to have not capitalized on a cracking start.
The second set was more interesting with a flurry of breakpoints shared between the two players in the start. Barthel was the first player to register a successful serve hold in the fourth game and her opponent was already
trailing by 1-3 at that stage. She broke serve for the third time in a row and took 4-1 lead which was further enhanced to 5-1 with a successful hold.
Keothavong could only win two games in the second set whilst her opponent completed a resounding triumph in the opening qualifier helping her to book a battle against the winner of the clash between Bojana Jovanovski and
Urszula Radwanska. This match will be played later in the day.
Other successful first round qualifiers included the likes of Casey Dellacqua, Simona Halep, Aleksandra Wozniak and Maria-Jose Martinez Sanchez. The draw is heating up with deserving players progressing ahead into the advanced
stages.
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