Sofia Arvidsson and Arantxa Parra Santonja move into the second round of the 2011 Mutua Madrid Open
Swede tennis player Sofia Arvidsson defeated French Aravane Rezai 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 in three tight sets to advance into the second round of 2011 Mutua Madrid Open. With her win, Arvidsson has set up her next round match-up with world number five Victoria Azarenka of Belarus.
Arvidsson who is ranked 90th in the Women’s Tennis Association rankings, stunned a much higher ranked opponent on Sunday as she made an ideal start to her campaign at the WTA tournament. The Swede, who was struggling to find her peak form right from the start of this season, showed no signs of rust as she emerged victorious in the contest that lasted for more than 1 hour and 50 minutes.
The first set was dominated by the 27-year-old Arvidsson as she broke the serve twice to dent her opponent’s confidence levels. She pocketed the opener quite comfortably not allowing her opponent any break chances.
World number 24, Rezai came back strongly in the second set and showed great temperament and fighting ability to force the match into the decider. Despite trailing the game score by 3-2 in the set, she managed to clinch four straight games and levelled the set score 1-1.
Both players traded serve breaks and displayed some high quality tennis in the final set. However, Arvidsson held her nerves and made the crucial serve break to seal the match. Her serve was superior as she fired in eight aces during the contest. Arvidsson claimed 48 per cent of the points on serve return to put herself in a very strong position in the match.
Rezai failed to live up to the expectations and expressed her disappointment in a post match interview. “Arvidsson is a great fighter, we all know that. She played well in the first, I came back well in the second set. In the last set she played better tennis and she deserved to win. I made to many mistakes on the court and didn’t take advantage of the chances that came my way. I am very disappointed at the result.”
Wildcard entrant Arantxa Parra Santonja of Spain also booked a second round spot at the premier WTA event with a 6-3, 7-5 victory over Italian Flavia Pennetta.
Santonja broke the serve four times and required just one hour and 26 minutes dispatching her opponent. She looked to attack her opponent throughout the match and created match winning opportunities. Her opponent in the next round will be German Andrea Petkovic who eased past Lourdes Dominguez Lino of Spain 6-3, 6-1 in her opening match at the tournament.
Tags: