Mona Barthel strains past Caroline Garcia to clear round one – Qatar Total Open 2012
World number 39, Mona Barthel of Germany, went through some real rough ride before she outsmarted her 18-year-old French opponent, Caroline Garcia, in the opening round of the Qatar Total Open on Tuesday afternoon. The 21-year-old
Barthel laboured extremely hard to wrap up victory at 7-6(6), 7-6(4), advancing into the second round of the WTA (Women’s Tennis Association) Premier-level tournament.
The enthralling contest lasted for almost two hours, with both sets ending in close tie-breaker rounds before the unseeded German come out as the winner. The French teenager stretched Barthel to her limits and went neck-to-neck
throughout the matchup before eventually submitting in the tie-breaker rounds. Garcia’s inexperience came into play, as the 18-year-old choked in the intense pressure situations of the match.
Garcia met Barthel’s three break point conversions evenly but was led down by her unforced errors in the match. The youngster coughed 10 double faults on the most crucial occasions of the match to assist her opponent to claim victory
in the end. The unseeded German secured 37 out of 52 first serve points in the match and was equally good on her return game to take the better of her resilient opponent.
Action started from the third game of the match when Garcia drew first blood and held her serve to lead 3-1. A further trade of serve breaks from both ends took the scores to 4-3 in the favour of the French. Barthel finally delivered
the much needed break point in the eighth game to level the scores at 4-4. A regular game was followed and the scores got deadlocked at 6-6, enforcing a tie-breaker round into play. Barthel remained focused in the pressure situation and a vital mini-break
at 6-6 made it easier for her to claim the tie-breaker round at 7-6(6).
The second set was quite similar to the opener and Barthel again took the better of her opponent in the decider to conclude a hard-fought victory at 7-6(4).
A huge challenge waits Barthel in the second round of the tournament, as he will square off against the new world number one, Victoria Azarenka of Belarus. The belligerent top seed was awarded a bye to the second round of the Qatar
Total Open and she will begin her campaign from the match against Barthel. It will be Azarenka’s first match since her emphatic Australian Open victory against the former world number one, Maria Sharapova, last month and the Belarusian will be the hot favourite
for winning the title in Qatar as well.
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