Samantha Stosur rallied past Ekaterina Makarova in the third round – Western & Southern Open 2012
Australian number one, Samantha Stosur, gave the Russian, Ekaterina Makarova, a straight sets disposal of 6-1, 6-3 at the Western & Southern Women’s Open in Cincinnati on Thursday. The Australian tennis ace defeated her rival
in nearly 70-minutes of dominating game play.
The world number six served the first game of the initial set to go up 1-0 right away. She displayed brilliant performance and attaining to her advantage by capturing the first three games. Makarova struggled hard but was
unable to overcome the might of the Australian champion and she managed to pull up the score to 3-1 in the fourth game. However, Stosur continued with her fiery serve and nudged her 6-1, to claim the opening set.
The former world number four bulldozed her rival with four aces in the opening set. She managed to exhibit a good first serve of 75 percent converting 14 of 15 points in first serve points en route to victory. Nonetheless,
the Russian managed to pull off a decent first serve percentage of 70, bagged 17 of 28 first and two of 12 second serve points in the set. She could not strike any ace and double faulted four times at critical moments.
In the second set, the Russian number 44th picked up momentum and tried to equalize the scores in every subsequent game. In the fourth game, the score levelled to 2-all but then the Australian professional
pounced back and won all the remaining games to nail down her opponent at 6-3.
Both players bombarded each other with two aces apiece in the second set. However Makarova double faulted once, which gave her opponent a chance to gain lead. Stosur had an average first serve percentage of 59 and she managed
to pocket 11 of 13 in the first and six of nine second deliveries. On the hand, the Russian scored a relatively higher first serve of 72 percent. She managed to convert 17 of 26 first and three of 10 second reply points.
Stosur is amongst the favourite contenders of the Cincinnati Masters. She is determinate to pick up pace in the tournament and secure a good seed in the US Open.
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