Petra Cetkovska upsets Marion Bartoli in the quarter-finals – New Haven Open 2011
World number nine, Marion Bartoli of France, kept her drought against the 40th ranked Czech opponent, Petra Cetkovska, losing to her in the quarter-finals of New Haven Open at Yale on Thursday afternoon.
The contest was played on the hard courts of the Cullman-Heyman Tennis Center in New Haven, Connecticut, United States, with the Czech competitor stunning everyone to close out a tight straight sets victory at 7-5, 7-5. Bartoli hung in the game for one hour and forty six minutes of play before succumbing in the second set to let Cetkovska into the semi-finals of the WTA (Women’s Tennis Association) Premier Series tournament.
The number four seed Bartoli suffered her second consecutive defeat at the hands of Cetkovska, who outplayed the French in the round of 32 at Birmingham, the Great Britain, in 2009. The 26-year-old Czech carried on her magnificent form to wipe out Bartoli once again on Thursday to qualify for the round of four at New Haven Open art Yale.
“I had quite a good week last week in Cincinnati, qualifying and then passing one round. I lost to Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-4 in the third,” Cetkovska expressed her views after the matchup. “I don’t want to say I was feeling great, but it was like a nice promise that I might qualify or do something here. But I'm really surprised with this result.”
The Czech competitor coughed seven double faults in the game but compensated for them by bagging 30 first serve points en route to victory. She converted six of her break opportunities to conclude victory, while the French followed her with four out of eight break point conversion to finish the matchup on the losing end.
Cetkovska trailed 5-4 in both sets but skill fully recovered to turn the tables on Bartoli in the end. “I tried to be even more concentrated because at the end of sets are really the key moments. I tried to do my best, tried not to miss anything, just not give away any points,” the unseeded Czech explained in her post match reviews.
Cetkovska moved into the semi-final draws of New Haven Open at Yale to face this year’s French Open Champion, Li Na of China, for a place in the final of the Premier-level tournament. seeded at number two in the tournament, Li Na won her quarter-final battle against the eighth seeded Russian, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, 6-4, 3-6, 6-2, to meet Cetkovska in the semi-final round.
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