Petra Martic, Tamarine Tanasugarn into the second round – Wimbledon Championships 2011
When Petra Martic had looked at the draw at the Wimbledon championships 2011, she probably would have thought that she could easily enter the second round in straight sets. Instead, she had to keep her nerve to edge a quality first
round 5-7, 6-2, 6-2 against her more experienced opponent.
This was the first time that both women were going head-to-head against each other. However, both women started the match pretty well and the tension was there from the start as they traded early breaks. King was punishing the
ball more sweetly and every time she got the opportunity she pounded the Croat’s forehand with her monstrous backhands of the kind only she could hit. A forehand in the net handed King a crucial break to lead 5-4, and, though Martic had four chances to break
back at 6-5, King held on to grab the opener.
When King clinched the opener, it looked as if she would sustain the level her perfectionism, however, nothing happened as expected and Martic became more aggressive and broke back immediately. Bringing her brand of aggressive
tennis to the court, Martic unleashed a string of brilliant forehands to break en route to 2-0 lead but an effervescent and frothing King broke back to level at 2-2, with her drop shot increasingly effective. The American player seemed to regain her rhythm,
but the talented Croat justified her world ranking of number 98 and snatched the victory when an outrageous bounce off the line took the ball beyond the racquet of the American.
Maintaining her grittiness in the decider, she made a competitive start and raced to 4-2 lead, within the blink of an eye. Looking capable of breaking King’s ferocious serve in the decider, Martic looked to show no mercy and unleashed
an array of blooming shots and clinched the third set with a 6-2 score.
Improving her year-to-date win-loss mark to 16/11 matches, Martic now marches on into the second round of the tournament, she will face Tsvetana Pironkova of Bulgaria in the second round of the tournament. Facing the Bulgarian
for the first time in her career, Martic will look to perform with the same level of perfectionism.
Among all the lucky winners on Tuesday, Tamarine Tanasugarn of Thailand also posted a 6-2, 6-3 victory over the world number 123, Yaroslava Shvedova of Kazakhstan.
Playing their third match on tour, Tanasugarn levelled the pair's head-to-head series at 2-2 and reached the second round of the tournament, taking just one hour and eight minutes of play.
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