Sheng-Nan Sun struggles past Marianne Jodoin in the second round – Challenger of Granby 2011 CH
Dismay for the crowd at Granby, Canada, as the local qualifier, Marianne Jodoin, got defeated at the hands of the eighth seed Chinese, Sheng-Nan Sun in the second round of the National Bank’s Challenger of Granby on Thursday.
The enthralling contest took one hour and fifty two minutes to conclude, with Sun coming out as the winner after a sweating competition with the Canadian. The eighth seeded Chinese wrapped up straight sets victory at 7-6(2), 7-5,
to advance to the quarter-finals of the ITF (International Tennis Federation) hard-court tournament.
The matchup was stuffed with high quality tennis action, with the two contestants fighting took and nail to take the better of one another. The Chinese displayed her steely nerves to tackle the intense pressure situations in the
contest and never allowed her opponent to get into a strong position in the game. Jodoin was also up to the task and posed some serious resistance to Sun before submitting, as both sets went on neck-to-neck. The Canadian hung in the contest till the very last
minute but had to surrender in the last moments of the game to the belligerent Chinese.
Both women made their intentions clear right from the beginning and took off the contest with extreme aggression. Jodoin’s 73 per cent serve earned her 20 first serve points in the opener, while Sun followed her with 17 out of
her 22. The Chinese stung the first serve break of the day in the fourth game, only to be broken in the very next game to come back to even terms with her opponent.
The Canadian then went on to strike her second serve break in the opening set to break into lead but Sun quickly brought her down at 6-6, enforcing a tie breaker round in the game. Jodoin, who has been playing exceptionally well
in the first set, dropped her game all of a sudden in the tie breaker round and let easy opportunities to her competitor to let away with the set. Sun clinched the opening set at 7-6(2), to get a one-set lead in the contest.
More action was seen in the following set, with the Canadian battling very hard to remain alive in the competition. She struck two more serve breaks in the second set but the Chinese bettered her with her three cracking break points
to conclude a hard-earned victory at 7-5.
Sun will now face the second seed, Tetiana Luzhanska of Ukraine, in the quarter-final clash to fight for a place in the semis of the Challenger of Granby.
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