Patricia Mayr-Achleitner battles past Stephanie Gacon into 2nd round – Generali Ladies Linz 2011
Austrian wild card entrant, Patricia Mayr-Achleitner made a comeback to register a 3-6, 6-2, 6-2 victory over the French qualifier, Stephanie Foretz Gacon in a three setter mouth watering match at the Generali Ladies Linz 2011.
After earning success at this WTA International hard court event, Achleitner advanced into the second round on Wednesday.
World number 105, Austrian outmuscled the French woman, ranked eight places above her, in one hour and forty-three minutes on their second meeting. She not only extended her lead in the head-to-head series by 2-0 against the qualifier
but also secured a round of sixteen spot in this tier-II event.
Gacon confidently entered the Intersport Arena and after giving her best shot, she bagged the opener with a 6-3 score line. She smoothly plucked in entire serves without facing any breakpoint and converted one out of two breakpoint
opportunities to her advantage. The French woman spilled more errors but registered a spectacular 80 percent win on her higher first serve share.
The wild card carried her dismal ways in the second set and lost her serve in the opening game to eventually go 2-0 down. However, she roared back by blasting powerful groundstrokes to reel off next six games in a row and clinched
the equaliser with a 6-2 win. The Austrian couldn’t ward off the only breakpoint faced but capitalised on all three breakpoint chances to her advantage.
The blissful Austrian went into savage mode in the final set and wiped out first three games in a row. She exchanged a break in the sixth and seventh game and broke again in the last game to win the decider with a 6-2 score line.
Achleitner again failed to save the only breakpoint came across but cashed in on all three breakpoint opportunities again to her advantage.
"I had a bad start. I was very nervous. But in the second set it started getting better and I just kept fighting," the delighted Mayr-Achleitner said. "I feel good about Bad Gastein. After I made the final there I had some problems
with my shoulder, but in the end I'm very happy about this year. I hope I can keep this up here in Linz."
Achleitner will square off against top seeded wild card enterer, Petra Kvitova of Czech. The Wimbledon champion, Kvitova eased past Canadian Rebecca Marino in straight sets in under an hour.
World number four, Kvitova saved both breakpoints came across and converted half of the eight breakpoint opportunities to his advantage to seal the deal with a 6-2, 6-2 score line on their first face-to-face.
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