Monica Niculescu routines Tsvetana Pironkova in the first round – New Haven Open 2011
Rated at number 70 in the WTA (Women’s Tennis Association) World Rankings, Monica Niculescu of Romania took down the world number 51, Tsvetana Pironkova of Bulgaria, in the opening round of New Haven Open at Yale, on Sunday afternoon.
Being the last stop at the US Open Series, the competition was staged at the Cullman-Heyman Tennis Center in New Haven, Connecticut, United States, with The Romanian competitor absolutely devastating the unseeded Bulgarian. Niculescu
wrapped up victory in straight sets 6-3, 6-2, to make it to the second round of the WTA Premier Series event.
The Romanian registered her second consecutive win of the current season over Pironkova, as she defeated the Bulgarian in the round of 64 at the Australian Open earlier this year 6-4, 6-1. Her Sunday’s victory improved her head-to-head
record against Pironkova by 3-2 and booked a place in the second round of the Premier Series event.
The contest appeared pretty one-sided right from the beginning, with Niculescu dominating all the way. She served brilliantly, reaching 84 per cent precision in the match and secured 27 out of 28 first serve points en route to
victory.
Pironkova failed to meet the aggression of her opponent and committed a number of unforced errors in the matchup to assist Niculescu to victory. The Bulgarian submitted the opening set without posing any serious resistance to the
belligerent Niculescu but laboured extremely hard in the following set and gave some tough time to the Romanian before accepting defeat in the end.
Niculescu registered her first serve break of the day in the third game to lead the opener 3-1 early in the matchup. She faced three break points from Pironkova but successfully defended all of them to keep the upper hand in the
contest. After holding her serve in a couple of games, Pironkova suffered another crucial serve break from the Romanian in the ninth game to lose the first set at 3-6.
Intense tennis was witnessed in the second set of the match, with both contestants exchanging two serve breaks each in the opening four games. Niculescu kept on breaking her opponent’s serve in her every single serve game to drive
her out of the competition in an assertive manner. She finished off the contest at 6-2, getting through to the second round of the tournament, where she will face the world number eight, Francesca Schiavone of Italy, for a place in the quarter-finals.
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