Su-Wei Hsieh stuns Timea Babos in the opening round battle – Budapest Grand Prix 2012
World number 68, Su-Wei Hsieh of Chinese Taipei, posed a solid performance against the 64th ranked Hungarian qualifier, Timea Babos, in the opening round of the Budapest Grand Prix on Tuesday. She outplayed the 18-year-old
opponent in three gruelling sets, finishing at 6-7(4), 6-4, 6-1, to reach the round of 16 at the WTA (Women’s Tennis Association) International even in Budapest, Hungary.
The thrilling encounter took two hours and 14 minutes to conclude, with Hsieh winning her 20th match of the 2012 WTA season. Babos posed a solid resistance in the opening set of the match and she was stretched to her
limits by the crafty Taiwanese opponent. Both contenders fought desperately to attain the early advantage in the match and the scores kept ticking on even terms, deadlocking at 6-6. The world number 64, Babos, took the better of her opponent in the tie-breaker
and spared just four points for her before bagging the opener at 7-6(4).
More intense tennis was witnessed in the second set of the match, with a total of seven break points being exchanged. Successive serve breaks from the second until the seventh game dragged the scores at 4-4 and was heading for
a tie-breaker round. Hsieh stung the all-important serve break in the ninth game, which left her serving for the set at 5-4. She pocketed the second set at 6-4 to level the match scores at one-all and carried on with her winning impetus in the decisive third
set.
The Taiwanese contender struck two break points right up in the third set to race away to a substantial lead of 4-0. Babos finally held her serve in the fifth game but Hsieh came up with a death blow in the seventh game and closed
out the match with a breadstick, 6-1.
Hsieh will face the sixth seed Croatian, Petra Martic, in the second round to fight for a spot in the quarter-final rounds of the Budapest Grand Prix. Martic registered a resounding victory over the local wildcard entrant, Csilla
Borsanyi, in the opening round, beating her 6-0, 7-5, to reach the round of 16 in a convincing manner.
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