Rebecca Marino stuns Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in opening round – Luxembourg Open 2011
Second seeded Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova was stunned by the world number 62, Rebecca Marino of Canada in the opening round match at the BGL BNP Paribas Luxembourg Open 2011, a WTA tier-III International event taking place
on the indoor hard courts in Luxembourg City, Luxembourg. She suffered a 6-1, 3-6, 3-6 defeat at hands of her fellow 20-year-old Canadian on Tuesday.
Ranked 15th in the Sony Ericsson WTA Premier rankings, Pavlyuchenkova breezed her way to bag the opener. She was 2-0 up in the second set but failed to maintain her edge. The Russian also went 3-0 up in the final set
but then ran out of steam and subsequently suffered a three setter defeat in one hour and thirty-six minutes.
Regardless of facing her Canadian opponent for the first time, Pavlyuchenkova made quick in-roads. After Marino held her opening serve in the second game, the Russian unleashed flurry of angled and tactical shots to go on a five
games tear to earn a breadstick. The Russian faced zero breakpoints and cashed in on half of the six breakpoint opportunities to her advantage.
The Toronto native, Marino carried her losing ways in the second set and lost her opening serve in the second game to go 2-0 down. However, she replied by wiping out next four games in a row before the Russian could hold on again.
The highly positive Canadian broke Pavluchenkova’s serve for the third time in the last game to pocket the equaliser with a 6-3 win. She dusted away four out of five breakpoints came across and capitalised on all three breakpoint opportunities to her advantage.
Marino made a horrible entry in the final set as she lost her serve twice to go 3-0 down. However, she quickly rebounded by reeling off next six games in a row through exquisite forehands from her box of tricks. The Canadian saved
three out of five breakpoints faced and converted three out of six breakpoint chances to her advantage to register a 6-3 victory again.
She will lock horns with the winner of the match between German wild card enterer Angelique Kerber and Dutch qualifier Bibiane Schoofs.
Eighth seeded Slovak Daniela Hantuchova faced a similar fate. She was also ousted from the opening round by the hands of Czech lucky loser, Lucie Hradecka.
Hantuchova fought back hard but eventually suffered a 7-6(3), 5-7, 1-6 defeat in two hours and twenty-seven minutes on their second meeting.
The Czech on the other side levelled the head-to-head series by 1-1 against Hantuchova and confidently advanced into the second round.
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