Stefanie Voegele shocks Lucie Hradecka in round two – Family Circle Cup 2012
World number 131, Stefanie Voegele, stunned the 73rd ranked Czech, Lucie Hradecka, in the second round of the Family Circle Cup on Wednesday. The Swiss qualifier smashed the Czech in straight sets 6-4, 6-4.
She just took 77 minutes to oust her opponent and registered her third head-to-head win. It is ironic, despite the superior ranking and huge experience, Hradecka has just snapped one triumph in four face-offs against the Swiss.
The great rivalry started from the qualifiers of US Open2008 when the Swiss registered her first win. She lost the second match two years later in ECM Prague Open but reclaimed the lead in the head-to-head series in Saint Malo
last year. This victory will definitely boost her morale.
Both players started with the serve holds before exchanging breakthroughs. Hradecka was the one who had her nose ahead with successive game wins. However, her serve was broken in the seventh game that kept the scores close.
Voegele dropped just one point on her way to her fourth game win that levelled the scores at 4-4. The set was suddenly brought back into the balance. The Czech was the first to face the pressure situation. Unfortunately, the supreme
display of her opponent, forced her to drop the most critical game of the match and Voegele grabbed the set with an easy serve hold in the 10th game.
Trailing one set down, Hradecka failed to absorb the pressure and dropped the opening game of the second set. The Swiss qualifier consolidated the breakthrough with a tight serve hold in the following game and took the scores to
2-0 in her favour.
The Czech fought well but couldn’t handle the onslaught of her opponent. She lost another serve game on her way and went down 1-4 but it didn’t hurt her a lot as she recovered one breakthrough back in the sixth game to diminish
the trail. Scores were 4-2 in favour of the qualifier.
No player was able to pressurize her opponent in the following games; hence, no breakpoints were played on the clay courts of Charleston. Voegele won the match and booked a date with the fourth seed Russian, Vera Zvonareva.
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