Tamira Paszek collapses against Christina McHale in 1st round – Toray Pan Pacific Open 2011
American Christina McHale expelled Austrian Tamira Paszek in the opening round of the Toray Pan Pacific Open 2011. On 27th of September 2011 the players battled it out for one hour and fifty nine minutes on outdoor hard courts
of Ariake Colosseum, Tokyo, Japan. The higher ranked McHale got the better of the Austrian in straight sets of 7-6(1), 6-3.
Paszek had contested with McHale twice in their professional career; the last time they met was at Wimbledon Championships this year where the Austrian had won and was leading the head-to-head with 2-0. The third time proved to
be lucky for McHale, as she was able to restore her dignity by finally avenging her loss.
Paszek opted to serve first and both the players matched a blow for a blow in the first four games to round off the score at 2-2. However, McHale was first to break in the fifth game and took a competitive edge over her rival.
The players again held serve for the following four games but in the tenth game Paszek made a comeback by breaking McHale to even the score at 5-5.
Not wanting either of the players to get a competitive edge, the set was eventually pushed into a tie breaker as the contesters again broke each other back-to-back in the eleventh and twelfth game.
Although Paszek was able to match McHale’s game play throughout the set, she lost steam in the tiebreaker. Winning only one point on her serve, the scoreboard tied only once during the tiebreaker at 1-1. Kicking into high gear
and capitalizing on the Austrian’s errant strokes, McHale reeled off six straight points to clinch an easy and evidently a one-sided 7-1 victory, going one up in the set score.
The second set was opened by McHale and the scoreboard progressed on even terms allowing both to hold their serves in the first two games. However, during the third and fourth games the two challengers broke each other back to
back and the score levelled at 2-2 and then at 3-3. After the first six games, McHale kicked into top gear and served out the match with a serve-break-serve technique.
McHale was able to save a spot in the second round of the event where she will be facing tenth seed Shuai Peng.
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