Stephanie Foretz Gacon outfoxes Kristina Kucova in final qualies – US Open 2011
Contesting for the main draw of the US Open 2011, French Stephanie Foretz Gacon took on Slovak Kristina Kucova. On the hard courts of USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, the two players duelled a seesaw match until finally
Gacon bagged the match after surviving a mid-summer lapse with a 6-3, 5-7, 7-5 in exactly two hours.
Serving first with great resoluteness was Gacon as she opened the score to 1-0; Kucova was not to be left out and soon followed. Both players won on their serves but in the fifth game Kucova broker her opponent and took the lead
3-2. Not allowing her opponent any more points Gacon made a came back to even the score by breaking Kucova in the sixth game. Holding her serve in the seventh, in the eighth game Gacon broke her Slovak rival and took a 5-3 lead. Towards in the ninth game Gacon
smashed four aces and bagged the set without much opposition.
Winning the first set in just 38 minutes of play was as easy as pie and Gacon wanted to repeat the feat to see a nippy victory, but that ship had sailed and in a reversal of fortune Kucova pulled up her socks and bagged the second
set with a 7-5 victory.
This time it was Kucova who was serving first and with a strong back hand and a forehand both the players were winning on their serve still the first three games but then Kucova broke her adversary in the fourth game to take the
lead at 1-3. However, Gacon was not far behind and broke her in the alternate serve to even out the score in the sixth game. Both the players went at rallying each other out and winning games on their respective serves till in the tenth game the score was
equalized at 5-5. In the eleventh game Kucova won on her serve and had to break her opponent in the next game to serve the game, just as Gacon served she seized the opportunity to break her opponent the second and the last time.
After the second set was bagged by Kucova, both the players had hacked a set each and the third set would decide, the last man or rather the last woman standing.
Serving with resoluteness was Kucova but Gacon broke her opponent in the first game and opened the score card at 1-0. In the next three games both kept breaking each other on alternate serves and by the sixth game the score card
was equalized at 3-3. Desperate for the edge, Gacon again broke her rival in the seventh game but in the tenth was again broken by Kucova, who balanced the score card at 5-5. With just two games left Gacon again broke her adversary in the eleventh game to
eventually take the lead and as she held her serve in the twelfth game, she served the set and the match.
After two hours Stephanie Foretz Gacon came out victorious to save a spot in the main draw of the US Open 2011.
Tags: