Stephanie Dubois dumps Kathrin Woerle to advance into second round – Rogers Cup 2011
Local wild card entrant, Stephanie Dubois eased past German qualifier Kathrin Woerle with a breadstick at the Rogers Cup 2011, a WTA Premier event held at the Rexall Centre in Toronto, Canada. She registered a 7-6(4), 6-1 victory
over the 27-year-old German to move into the second round at her home soil on Tuesday.
World number 108, Dubois displayed exceptional skills to trash the qualifier, ranked thirty-three places below her, in straight sets on their third meeting. Facing after two years, the Canadian not only secured a second round
spot but also took lead in the head-to-head series by 2-1 against Woerle.
Dubois confidently entered the Canadian hard courts and with help from her home crowd, she bagged in the opening game by keeping her serve. Later, she got the first blood in the fourth game and took 3-1 lead. Despite losing her
edge in the proceeding game, the Canadian broke qualifiers serve again in the ninth game and once again took lead. However, she failed to maintain it as she gifted away her serve in the very next game. The set went to a tie-breaker where Dubois prevailed to
clinch the opener with a 7-6(4) win.
She committed four double faults and clobbered a lower first serve share of 55 percent as compared to German’s 67 percent. However, the Canadian earned a convincing 59 percent win on it and saved four out of six breakpoints faced
to drag the set to a tie-breaker.
The Canadian flashed into the final set and unleashed barrage of groundstrokes to reel off first four games in a row before Woerle could hold on. She maintained her momentum and wiped out last two games to earn a breadstick. Dubois
perfected her game as she produced a much higher first serve share of 73 percent as compared to Woerle’s 56 percent and earned a spectacular 91 percent win on it. She faced not even a single breakpoint and capitalised on three out of eleven breakpoint opportunities
to her advantage to win with an assuring score line.
Next challenge for the Canadian is the fourth seed, Belarusian Victoria Azarenka who received a bye from the first round after being a top eight player in this event.
Ranked 4th in the Sony Ericsson WTA rankings, Azarenka has clinched titles at Miami and Marbella in her twelve match winning run this season. She then made a final berth at Madrid and reached the last four at Wimbledon
before losing to the eventual champion Petra Kvitova in brutal three sets.
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