Simona Halep gets the better of Llagostera Vives in the first round of the BNP Paribas Open
World number 64 Simona Halep of Romania made a terrific comeback to outplay her Spanish opponent Nuria Llagostera Vives in the opening round of the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells, California on Thursday night.
The Romanian recovered brilliantly after dropping the first set and won the three-set contest by 0-6, 6-2 and 6-4, in two hours and fifteen minutes. An amazing display of mental resilience form Halep booked her a place in the second round at the Indian Wells.
The 19-year-old Halep had a poor start to the match and was completely blown away by the Spanish veteran in the opener. It appeared at the beginning as if the contest was a complete mismatch but the Romanian teenager proved the opposite in the later parts
of the game. Halep cruised past the second set and then strained through the third to register her sixth victory for the current year.
Vives ignited the first set with great aggression, breaking the opponent’s serve in the very first game. The Spanish delivered 63 per cent of her first serve on target, while her rival doing better than her with 70 per cent. Vives crafted six break chances
but converted half of them, breaking the opponent’s serve three times consecutively.
The young Romanian failed to hold serve in any of her games and surrendered the first set to her competitor at 0-6. A total of 42 points were played in the opening set, with Vives winning 28 and Halep following her with a mere 14.
A dramatic twist in came in the game when the 19-year-old came out firing in the second set. Halep cracked some assertive winners down the line to break the shackles and clinched 100 per cent of points on her first serve. She gave no chance to her opponent
to break her serve and raced to a 5-2 lead. Halep stung two serve breaks to bag the set at 6-2 and brought the contest on even terms with one set a piece. The Romanian collected 30 out of 47 points in the set while committing minimum number of errors.
With the competition evenly poised at 1-1, the decider went to the wire. An exchange of serve breaks was seen early in the set as both players battled out to excel over each other. Vives lost her steam in the third set and coughed five costly double faults,
letting her opponent to come on top. Halep closed out the match with a break point at 5-4 to advance to the second round of the event.
Halep’s hard fought victory will boost up her confidence in the next round when she will be taking on the 28th seed Spanish, Martinez Sanchez, who earned a berth in to the second round through a bye.
Tags: