Polona Hercog downs Anna Tatishvili; moves in to the second round – Collector Swedish Open 2011
Polona Hercog of Slovenia justified her billing as she beat Anna Tatishvili of Georgia 7-5, 6-3 in the opening round of Collector Swedish Open 2011 on Tuesday.
It was, however, an igniting attacking exhibition from the Slovenian, as she took the match in one hour and thirty seven minutes of play. Despite coming into the match low of confidence and faith, having won only fourteen matches
since the beginning of year, Hercog managed to dismantle Tatishvili in an influential fashion.
The first round match between Hercog and Tatishvili proved to be a close affair early on as neither player dropped a point on their serve and the match continued to follow serve in a clinical fashion.
Tatishvili, typically, dispatched numerous winners, which ensured a comfortable opening for the Georgian, but missed his chance at 4-3 up when Hercog found herself at 15-30 down. But with luck on her side, Hercog clawed her way
back to 40-30 as she repeatedly came into the net, ultimately causing Tatishvili to over hit a cross court drop shot and the match stayed with serve.
The turning point came late in the opening set, as Hercog broke to lead the set 6-5. The crucial game saw Tatishvili stunned by an astonishing turnaround which saw the Georgian broken despite leading the game 40-15 with a set point.
A series of backhand winners produced a game point, on which Hercog pounced, as Tatishvili’s second serve sat up beautifully for the Slovenian to hammer into the corner.
After coolly serving out the opener, Hercog kept the momentum flowing with a hard hitting love service game, as a shell-shocked Tatishvili looked on.
With confidence clearly growing, Hercog landed another deadly blow with a break in the fifth game, aided by unforced errors by the Georgian, who sliced wide into the tramlines at 15-40, much to her own irritation.
From then onwards the bit was firmly between the teeth of Hercog, as she justified her world ranking of No.53 by once again taking apart a dismayed Tatishvili to gain a fantastic victory.
By virtue of her straight sets win against the Georgian, the Slovenian now leads their head-to-head series to 1-0 and has also improved her year-to-date win/loss mark to 15/17 matches.
Hercog now moves on ahead to face defending champion Aravane Rezai of France for the third time with the Frenchwoman leading their head-to-head series to 2-0.
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