Sabine Lisicki ousts Anabel Medina Garrigues and advances to round two – China Open 2012
World number 28, Sabine Lisicki, trounced the 39th ranked Spaniard, Anabel Medina Garrigues, in the opening round of the China Open at Beijing on Monday. She won the opening set 6-3 but couldn’t handle the onslaught in the second and stooped with the scores to 5-7. However, the recovery from the 23-year-old German was brilliant as she registered a commanding triumph with a 6-2 final set score.
An hour and 55 minutes were taken by the German star to register her first victory at Beijing. Last year, Lisicki lost the 30-year-old Spaniard in the semi-final at Bali. So, the revenge was on her mind and the aggressive play from the 23-year-old German helped her to make a positive comeback in the final set.
Lisicki has been surrounded by several injuries in the recent times so the victory must have boosted her morale and more importantly given her confidence that will be extremely helpful in the remaining stages of the tournament.
The opening set witnessed a double breakthrough for the German who took a resounding lead of 5-1 with no tension at all. She was absolutely cruising at that stage and got ready to serve for the set. However, the first shot at the set wasn’t successful as the Spaniard broke serve to keep the set alive. The little cameo from Garrigues just delayed the result that was clear from the word go. Lisicki served for the set again and lost no point on that occurrence.
Both players started the second set in traditional fashion; held serves and swapped breakpoints to keep the scores together. No drama was witnessed until the eighth game of the match. Another trade of the breakpoints pushed every spectator to the edge of their seats. Garrigues utilized her experience to power down the German youngster with powerful serves coupled with classy drop shots. A serve hold followed by a breakpoint for the Spaniard was good enough to enforce the final set.
Lisicki ruled the show in the final set; broke serve thrice in a row and clinched the second round berth with a classic winner down the line. She will play the top seed Belarusian, Victoria Azarenka, in round two.
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