Samantha Stosur rallies past Lucie Safarova in quarter-finals – Dubai Championships 2012
Samantha Stosur of Australia was tested to the limits from the Czech contestant, Lucie Safarova, in the second round battle of the Dubai Duty Free Championship. On Wednesday, both contestants fought for almost two hours before the Aussie dumped her opponent
with scores of 6-1, 6-7(5), 6-1.
Safarova was suffering severely from the Aussie onslaught in the opening set. She failed to register anything in the first five games. It was all Stosur who gobbled up a couple of breakpoints on her way to a majestic lead of 5-0. The Aussie spared just a
single for her opponent before registering a cracking opening set triumph.
Suddenly the Czech seemed to have changed gears and was looking a completely different player in the second set. She controlled her serves well and was playing with a positive mindset. Both players capitalised on their serves and pushed the scores to 6-6
with no breakthroughs.
A tie-breaker round was very interesting; the Czech took a massive lead of 5-1 but Stosur fought back to win three points on the trot. She failed to win another and lost the set to her opponent. The stage was set for a cracking third round battle but Safarova
was already running out of stamina.
Stosur broke serve in the second game to take the lead and soon crushed her opponent down with scores of 4-1. It was not an easy task to fight her way back from such a dismal state and Safarova lost another serve that enhanced her misery. Scores were 5-1
at that stage with Stosur serving for the quarter-final spot in the tournament.
No points were won by Safarova in the final game of the match and Stosur was happy to have made it to the quarter-finals and said, “Lucie has got a big game and can be a very dangerous player. When she puts it all together it's hard to play against. I thought
I was serving really well tonight. That second set I lost it, but I don't think I did that much wrong. I had a few opportunities to try and break late in the second set and wasn't able to take them, but then finally did early in the third."
Stosur booked a date with Jelena Jankovic, the eighth seed contestant. Jankovic is also the former World Number one who is fighting her way up to the top ranks with some sublime performances. She defeated the Italian tennis icon, Flavia Pennetta, in the
second round clash before dumping the Czech starlet, Petra Cetkovska in the tournament opener.
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