Stephanie Dubois beats Sania Mirza to enter the second round – Citi Open 2011
World number 117, Stephanie Dubois of Canada produced arguably the best performance of the year, as she dominated the world number 62, Sania Mirza from start to finish,
winning the match in straight sets, being played here at the College Park, Washington, D.C.
The 24-year-old Canadian played some spectacular tennis to win 7-5, 6-4 and moved into the second round of the tournament where she will face Heather Watson of Great Britain
for a place in the third round of the tournament.
Dubois’s tennis was kind of hermetic at the start of the match, surrendering just two of five break points, and it was this accuracy which gave Dubois the break of serve,
and a pretty hard time to the world number 62.
However, as the first set moved towards the business end, the Canadian suffered a lapse in concentration, allowing Mirza back into the match. With the match back on serve,
it seemed quite reasonable to anticipate a tie-breaker to decide the outcomes, however, Dubois regrouped herself tremendously, and broke back to take the first set with a 7-5 score.
The Canadian player wrapped up the first set with 64 percent behind her first serve and 48 percent behind her second serve respectively. In contrast the Indian woman lost
the first set with a difference of five points in total, letting the Canadian to grab the early advantage.
After losing first set, the 24-year-old Mirza seemed to drop the level of her game as she was totally frustrated by the variety of Dubois’s defence and started to misfire
long and wide, a proof of Mirza’s frustration and lack of self-belief. This eventually resulted in Indian’s humiliating defeat, losing the second set with four games to Dubois’s six.
Emerging victorious, Dubois has extended her year-to-date win-loss mark to 29-13 matches and now marches on into the second round where she will face America’s Heather Watson,
who beat Eleni Daniilidou of Greece to make it to the second round.
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