Samantha Stosur defeats Tsvetana Pironkova in 1st round – China Open 2011
US Open champion Samantha Stosur just needed seventy minutes to oust Bulgarian Tsvetana Pironkova in the opening round of the China Open 2011. The players duelled on outdoor hard courts of the National Tennis Center in Beijing,
China. Stosur was quick to show the door to world number forty seven, Pironkova in straight sets of 6-4 6-0 on Sunday, the 2nd of October.
The strong hitting Stosur opted to serve first, subsequently, after winning the toss and she had to battle a deuce to ward off the Bulgarian and rolled the scoreboard to 1-0. Trailing behind her was the Bulgarian and she too expertly
placed herself on the scoreboard at 1-1.
Stosur needed to take the edge and so she used the offensive method of serve-break-serve to take a mini lead at 4-1 in the following three games. During the sixth, seventh and eighth game, both the players held serve and by the
end of the eighth game the scoreboard had rolled to 5-3. Amidst the last two games the players broke each other back-to-back and in doing so Stosur clogged the opening set with a deftly 6-4 victory.
Opting to serve for the second set was again Stosur and she held her service game to roll the scoreboard to 1-0 but in the second game her adversary had double faulted during her second serve and thus endorsed another game to Stosur,
who was now leading with 2-0.
Stosur chose an assertive style of play and powered through the remaining set as in the third game, she won on her serve but in the fourth, she pounced at the first opportunity to again break her adversary to further increase the
gap to 4-0.
The Australian (Stosur) was a big hitter and smashed two consecutive aces to bag the fifth game without much opposition and in the sixth; she got to break the Bulgarian for the last time as she sealed a bagel set victory and the
match.
The number six seed Samantha Stosur saw an early loss in Tokyo but here expertly managed to qualify. Overall in the match, smashed three aces, targeted 62 percent of her first serves on target and won 71 percent of her first serves
to secure a berth in the second round of the China Open 2011.
Up next for Stosur is the Russian surprise Maria Kirilenko, who had defeated Caroline Wozniacki in the opening round of the Tokyo Open 2011. Kirilenko also defeated Julia Goerges in the first round of the China Open and is known
for upsetting top seeds.
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