Unseeded Marion Bartoli advances to the semis at Qatar Ladies Open
French Marion Bartoli defeated Chinese Shuai Peng 6-2, 6-2 at the Qatar Ladies Open on Thursday.
World No.18 Bartoli had won 7 out of her last 10 matches. She triumphed over Russian Alisa Kleybanova and 8th seeded Israeli Shahar Peer in straight sets in the first two rounds of the tournament. Before entering this tournament, she reached the
third round of the Dubai WTA Premier event.
World No.38 Shuai Peng overpowered Swiss Timea Bacsinszky and 3rd seeded Italian Francesca Schiavone in straight sets in the first two rounds. Before entering this tournament she reached the fourth round of the Australian Open Grand Slam and reached
the quarter-finals of the Pattaya Open.
Bartoli with her awesome double handed shots broke the Chinese serve in the very first game and held her serve in the next game. Although Peng held her serve twice, fired an ace, saved five break points and had an acceptable first serve percentage of 67
percent as compared to Bartoli’s 72 percent, the initial break did the damage. The French won the set with a 6-2 score line with an amazing 72 percent win on her first serve.
Bartoli continued her winning momentum in the second set and clinched it 6-2. Peng fired 2 aces and saved four break points but she committed 6 double faults which led to her downfall. Bartoli got two breaks in the second set and had a higher first serve
percentage of 71 percent in contrast to Peng’s 66 percent. She also registered an impressive 80 percent win on it and hit 22 winners.
After defeating Peng, Bartoli extends her head to head lead 4-3.
“I thought I played well. It could have been 6-1 in the second set instead of 6-2, even 6-0,” Bartoli said. “But it was a great performance overall. Yesterday I played slightly better, but today I was still playing very strong.”
Bartoli will be facing world number one Caroline Wozniacki in the semi-finals. Wozniacki reached the final after defeating Italian Flavia Pennetta with a bagel and is in prime form. The Dane won 12 games in a row to dump the Italian out of the tournament
6-2, 6-0. However, the French woman can make it a worthwhile duel to watch, if she plays with her current form.
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