Simona Halep gusts away Sloane Stephens to reach round two – Barcelona Ladies Open 2012
Simona Halep of Romania registered straight sets 6-4, 6-4 victory against the 19-year-old American booming starlet, Sloane Stephens, to reach the second round of the Barcelona Ladies Open on Monday. The match lasted an hour and
34 minutes.
The 20-years-old Romanian was the first one to take hold of the proceedings. She broke serve in the opening game and took a lead of 2-0 with a serve hold. Both players held their respective serves in the following three games that
pushed the scores to 3-2.
Halep dramatically witnessed a slump in her form, dropped a couple of points on her serve early that assisted her competitor to bounce back into the match. Stephens broke serve for the first time in the match and levelled the scores
at 3-3.
Stephens’s breakthrough opened a series of exchange of breakpoints. Both players swapped three back-to-back breakpoints following the American’s break. The Romanian led the total tally of breakpoints with 3:2 and opened up the
set. She strained her way to a tight serve hold in the final game that rounded off the first set proceedings in her favour.
The Romanian smacked a couple of aces but committed four double-faults that assisted her competitor to keep the set alive for a longer period of time. However, the breakpoint conversion ratio of the 46th ranked Romanian
was extremely well. She created four opening and converted three off them in her favour whereas her competitor could only benefit from the two chances out of five.
Stephens started the second set with a serve hold and broke serve to consolidate the lead. However, she was broken back in the following game that levelled the scores at 2-2. A serve hold at both end pushed the scores to 3-3.
The Romanian starlet broke serve to take a lead of 4-3 and build upon that lead with a serve hold. The American kept her hunt intact for a breakpoint but her opponent was not allowing any easy points at all. The triumph helped
the Romanian to march into the second round of the tournament.
Simona Halep will face the tough draw in the next round. She will take on the likes of the fourth seed Italian competitor, Roberta Vinci, who is also the defending champion of the tournament. It will be one of the biggest upset
if the Romanian defeats the in-form Italian at such an early stage of the tournament.
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