Petra Martic eases past Aleksandra Wozniak in qualifying round of BNP Paribas Open 2011
Croatian Petra Martic defeated Canadian number one Aleksandra Wozniak in a three setter in the qualifying round of the BNP Paribas Open 2011 on Monday.
Martic started off a bit nervously and committed a large number of unforced errors in the first set. She produced four double faults and gifted away the two serve breaks to hand over the set 3-6 to her opponent.
Having analysed Wozniak’s strategy and plan, Martic then targeted her weaknesses in the second and third sets. The Croatian had a formidable defence and a strong attacking ability. She completely dominated the match and sent the challenger running all over
the court. Martic lost only one game in the final two sets to humble the challenger 3-6, 6-0, 6-1 in a match that lasted for only 1 hour and 38 minutes.
20-year-old Martic’s first serve conversion was as high as 72 per cent whereas Wozniak managed 64. The Croatian worked hard and created chances for herself in the contest as she converted 6 serve breaks out of 14. She was also the better of two players in
the serve return department winning 55 per cent points as compared to 37 acquired by Wozniak.
Ranked 133 in the world, Aleksandra Wozniak was once ranked as high as 21 in the world. The 23-year-old won her only Women’s Tennis Association title at Bank of the West Classic 2008. During the tournament, she defeated world number 20 Francesca Schiavone
and world number 29 Sybille Bammer. In the final, she defeated sixth seed French Marion Bartoli to become the first Canadian player in 20 years to win a WTA title. However, since then she has not been able to deliver the goods and could not go past the second
round of any tournament she played in.
Meanwhile Martic was delighted with her performance. She stuck to her strengths and gave an excellent display of her skills. She has had a good time recently on the Tour and reached the fourth round of Australian Open 2011.
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