Silvia Soler-Espinosa ousts Irina-Camelia Begu in round two – US Open 2012
World number 58, Silvia Soler-Espinosa, battled past the 96th ranked Romanian, Irina-Camelia Begu, in the second round of the US Open on the eve of Thursday. She won the match in straight sets 6-4, 7-6(5) but it wasn’t
as easy as it feels like because the 22-year-old Romanian was very close in pulling up an upset in the second set of the match.
Begu started the match and pulled up a very tight serve hold but it was good for her because she was the one commencing the match as an underdog. The pressure was always on her and she delivered pretty well in the first phase of
the opening set before throwing it away courtesy a very embarrassing unforced error in the seventh game.
Both players swapped breakpoints after the end of the four games but the Spaniard managed to squeeze another breakthrough and held her serve in the following game to retain the lead. It was a miserable mistake from the Romanian
who failed to smash an easy overhead volley and thumped it back straight at the throat of the neck.
The second set witnessed an impressive show at both ends. No players dropped any games on their serves and that was good enough to enforce the tie-breaker round into play. Espinosa was the first player to be in trouble during the
second game of the set. However, she survived the scare; held her nerves and her serve.
Begu was in trouble during the 11th game of the set. She was almost going down a break but her opponent failed to convert the opportunity allotted to her and the scare was over in a flash. In a tie-breaker round, both
players fought hard until the 22-year-old Romanian player bowed down; dropped a late mini-break and couldn’t recover back to enforce the final set into play.
The Romanian deserved to have another shot at the third set berth. A straight sets triumph for the Spaniard was harsh on her rival. However, Espinosa is all set to take on the likes of the Bulgarian star, Tsvetana Pironkova, in
the third round clash.
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