Silvia Soler-Espinosa, Severine Beltrame successful in the qualifying round of the Grand Prix SAR
Qualifying fourth seed Silvia Soler-Espinosa of Spain humbled Ahsha Rolle of United States 7-5, 6-2 on Sunday to reach the final round at the 2011 Grand Prix SAR La Princesse Lalla Meryem qualifying tournament in Morocco.
The Spanish tennis-pro was having a horrendous time on the Women’s Tennis Association tour since the start of this season. At the 2011 Mexican Open she was overwhelmed by Gisela Dulko 6-1, 6-1 in the second round play. Her next WTA stop was at Monterrey Open where she was outplayed by American Alison Riske in the qualifying round. At Andalucia Tennis Experience she was ousted by world number 163 Sesil Karatantcheva.
However, here at the red clay courts in Fes Soler-Espinosa looked in supreme touch and required only one hour and 25 minutes dispatching her opponent. She will take a lot of confidence from her win over the American and hope to achieve similar results in her upcoming matches at the tournament.
Ahsha Rolle on the other was disappointed at her ordinary effort. She had considerable chances to break the serve but failed to convert them and hence paid the price. The American struggled in the serve return department as well managing only 26 per cent of the points on return.
Both contestants played highly competitive tennis in the first set as serve breaks were traded. Rolle broke the serve first with a lovely forehand winner down the line. However Soler-Espinosa regrouped herself and made a double sever break to lead the game score by 6-4. She then held on to her next serve game to take the set score lead 1-0.
The second set proved to be completely one sided. Soler-Espinosa dropped only a couple of games in the set to wrap up the match with only 1 hour and 25 minutes of play gone. The Spaniard surprised her opponent with her clever chip shots and also earned crucial points with accurate and powerful serves. She will take on Eleni Daniilidou of Greece in her next match up at the tournament.
In another match Severine Beltrame of France defeated Russian Alexandra Panova in three tight sets 6-3, 5-7, 6-3 to book a final round berth at the qualifying tournament.
Beltrame made a bright start and clinched the opener with a crucial serve break in sixth game of the set. Panova bounced back brilliantly in the following set and broke the serve twice in the set to level the set score 1-1.
Beltrame organized her game play and came up with a special performance in the decider. With her aggressive intent she forced the challenger into making critical mistakes and then took complete advantage of the situation. In her next match-up she will be facing Kristyna Pliskova who breezed past Leticia Costas-Moreira 7-5, 6-1.
Tags: