Naomi Broady, Sarah Gronert successful in first qualifying round – AEGON Classic 2011
World number 231, Naomi Broady of United Kingdom thrashed out American wild card entrant Raquel Kops-Jones 6-3, 6-3 to book her place in the final round of 2011 AEGON Classic tennis tournament in Birmingham.
The number twelve seed Broady made a terrific start to her campaign at the qualification tournament. She executed her forehand and backhand shots with confidence and made Kops-Jones’ game play look very ineffective. Breaking the
serve at regular intervals, she gained complete control over the match and then required only one hour and seventeen minutes to earn her straight sets victory.
Broady broke the serve in sixth game of the opening set to take a substantial 4-2 lead. Dashing her ferocious backhand and forehand winners all over the court, the Brit seemed to be the only winner in the match. Jones had a number
of break chances in the opener but she failed to convert them and hence paid the heavy price.
The second set also followed a pretty similar pattern with Jones struggling to hold on to her serve games. Broady on the other hand continued to display some top quality tennis and made the required serve break to take 4-1 lead
in the set. Holding on to her next two serve games comfortably, she ended the match in straight sets.
Jones had a weak serve and managed to win only 22 per cent of the points on her second serve. To yield positive results in her upcoming matches at the Women’s Tennis Association tour she must bring improvement in her serve. Broady
dominated nearly all aspects of the game but achieved only 56 per cent first serve conversion thus allowing her opponent to take control of rallies. She will take on American Sloane Stephens in her next match-up at the WTA tournament.
Number thirteen seed Sarah Gronert of Germany also secured a thumping 6-3, 6-1 victory over Lottie Fox of Great Britain to book her final round berth at the qualification tournament.
Gronert looked to attack the challenger right from the start of the match. She displayed some amazing baseline tennis play and forced her opponent to commit unforced errors. Breaking the serve five times in the match, she established
complete control over the situation. Fox had her chances to break the serve but she managed to convert only one out of five, which of course played a big part in her defeat. A whopping 7 double faults did not help the cause either as she was defeated in straight
sets.
The German will face Michelle Larcher De Brito of Portugal in her next match-up.
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