Monica Puig dumps Sofiya Kovalets to move into the Girls’ Singles quarterfinals – French Open 2011
Fifth seeded Puerto Rican Monica Puig eased past Ukrainian Sofiya Kovalets with double breadsticks at Roland Garros 2011, a major clay court event held in Paris, France. She bounced from a set down to win the match by a 4-6, 6-1,
6-1 victory over the 18-year-old Ukrainian on Wednesday.
The Puerto Rican seed was shaky in the opening set but later roared back by pocketing two breadsticks in this three set thriller match at Stade Roland Garros. Ranked 314th in the Sony Ericsson WTA Premier rankings, Puig
triumphed over the Ukrainian, ranked 165 places below her, in one hour and forty three minutes to book a last eight spot.
The Ukrainian edged over Puig in the opening set and after exchanging three breaks, she converted her fourth breakpoint opportunity to her advantage in the end to clinch the set with a 6-4 success. Kovalets produced an amazing
first serve share of 81 percent as compared to Puerto Rican’s 67 percent and registered a convincing 52 percent win on it.
Despite a great duel in the opener, the Ukrainian stepped of gas in the remaining match as she couldn’t even hold her single serve.
Puig, on the other hand, raised her level of game in the second set and despite producing a lower first serve share of 59 percent as opposed to Kovalets’ 76 percent, she earned an impressive 62 percent win on it. The Puerto Rican
lost her serve once but reeled off remaining six games to bag a breadstick in just thirty-one minutes. She saved two out of three breakpoints faced and converted four out of five breakpoint opportunities to her advantage.
The higher ranked carried her winning ways into the decider and hammered blistering forehands from her box of tricks to earn the second breadstick in thirty-eight minutes. She again produced a lower first serve share but earned
a spectacular 80 percent win on it. Puig again lost a serve but broke the Ukrainian’s serve three times to win comfortably.
Next up for the Puerto Rican is the fourth seeded Serb Natalija Kostic who rallied past American Victoria Duval in a three set match to reach this spot.
Second seed will also be joining Puig after earning a straight set victory against Croat Donna Vekic. The seeded Russian Irina Khromacheva displayed awe-inspiring skills at court sixteen and converted seven out of ten breakpoint
opportunities to her advantage to clinch the match with a 6-4, 6-2 score line in one hour and twenty minutes.
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