Pliskova battles past Costas-Moreira in the qualifying second round at the Grand Prix De SAR
World number 216, Kristyna Pliskova of Czech Republic ousted Leticia Costas-Moreira of Spain in straight sets 7-5, 6-1 in the second round of the qualifying draw at Fes, Morocco. The 19-year-old Czech took one hour and sixteen
minutes to conclude the match in her favour. She now moves on ahead to face Severine Beltrame of France in the final round. Beltrame moved past Alexandra Panova of Russia in straight sets to make it this far. Being a part of the 2011 WTA (Women's Tennis Association)
it's the eleventh edition of the tournament.
Turned pro in 2009, Pliskova kicked off the year by putting in an appearance at the Australian Open where she couldn’t move past the first round of the qualies and faced defeat at the hands of her American opponent, Ashley Weinhold
in straight sets. She then moved on to again play Weinhold in the finals of Rancho Mirage, where she exhibited vintage class performance, though she couldn’t move past the American and lost the match in straight sets. In her latest appearance at the Clearwater
one month back, the Czech reached the quarterfinals of the tournament before losing to Michelle Larcher De Brito in two sets. The Czech player has won a junior singles title at the 2010 Wimbledon Championships, defeating Sachie Ishizu of Japan in straight
sets.
Costas-Moreira on the other hand, started her year at the Cali tournament where she reached the second round of qualifying draw before facing defeat at the hands of Alexandrina Naydenova in three sets. Her best performance in the
year came at the Bath 2 tournament, where she reached the finals to play Lara Arruabarrena-Vecino of Spain. She lost the match in straight sets to the ultimate defending champion in a 6-4, 6-2 set score.
In the first set, both opponents had an average start to the game, with Pliskova landing in 35 percent of her first serves while the Spaniard managed a higher 48 percent. The 21-year-old Costas-Moreira managed to convert 73 percent
on her first serves into points while his opponent managed 67 percent. The difference between the conversion ratios proved to be critical in deciding the results. Czech took benefit of her serves points and took the set with 7-5 score.
The final set was an all-Pliskova show, whose opponent handed over the set without any resilience. Pliskova saved 100 percent of the breakpoints she created whereas her opponent could only convert three of five breakpoints she
faced. Pliskova won 81 percent on her first serves and clinched a 6-1 win improving her year-to-date win/loss record to 9-6.
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