Monica Puig labours past Irina Khromacheva into the final of the Girls’ Singles – French Open 2011
Fifth seeded Puerto Rican Monica Puig battled past second seeded Russian Irina Khromacheva in a three set thriller at Roland Garros 2011, where style meets substance. She registered a 6-3, 1-6, 7-5 win over the 16-year-old Russian to advance into the final on Thursday.
The lower seeded Puig displayed exceptional skills to down Khromacheva in two hours and nineteen minutes to book a last two spot at Stade Roland Garros.
17-year-old Puerto Rican stormed into the opening set at court two to smoothly hold her opening serve. Although Puig lost her serve twice, she converted three out of six breakpoint opportunities to her advantage to seal the opener, winning six games to three in thirty-two minutes. She produced a higher first serve share of 65 percent as compared to Khromacheva’s 57 percent, registering a fascinating 70 percent win on it.
Standing on a level 1-1 in the second set the Russian unleashed a flurry of ground strokes from her box of tricks to reel off the next five games in a row. Although Khromacheva clobbered a drastic first serve share of 40 percent as opposed to Puig’s 71 percent, she earned a spectacular 80 percent win on it. In addition to this, she faced zero breakpoint and converted two out of five breakpoint opportunities to her advantage to pocket a breadstick.
Puig got back on track into the decider and held her opening serve convincingly. She lost an early serve in the fifth game and was trailing 2-4. However, the Puerto Rican snatched the break back to level the scores at 4-4. Later, Puig held her remaining serves and broke the Russian’s serve again in the end to clinch the set with a 7-5 win. Regardless of committing more double faults, she produced a higher first serve share of 54 percent as compared to Khromacheva’s 40 percent and earned an impressive 67 percent win on it.
She will next face the ninth seeded Tunisian Ons Jabeur who stunned French Caroline Garcia in a 6-2, 1-6, 6-2 three setter to reach this spot.
The Tunisian overpowered Garcia in front of her home crowd in one hour and thirty-three minutes to advance into this final spot. Jabeur saved seven out of ten breakpoints faced and converted seven out of fourteen breakpoint opportunities to her advantage to clinch easily. In addition to this, she took full advantage of the twelve double faults the French girl clobbered and earned a plausible 63 percent win on her first serve.
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