Vania King advances; British challenge ends as Elena Baltacha exits – French Open 2011
Vania King continued her incredible run here on the red clay courts of Roland Garros as she came back from behind to register an emphatic victory over Brit Elena Baltacha 4-6, 6-1, 6-4 on Thursday to reach the third round of Grand Slam tournament.
The American looked a bit rusty as the contest started. She committed a fair number of unforced errors in the opening set but as the match progressed she was able to find her form and finally prevailing after 2 hours and 6 minutes of struggle on the court.
Flooring the 22nd seed Dominika Cibulkova in the opening round here in Paris, King has looked in commanding form since the start of this tournament. She certainly has the game to trouble top players on the clay surface as she proved in both of her matches. Although she made a slow start to the match, she was able to find her game just at the right time.
Baltacha took a competitive opening set with two crucial breaks of serve. The Brit looked in control of long rallies and was able to establish herself quite nicely in the match. In contrast, King struggled to convert the chances and managed to win only one out five break opportunities she had in the set. With a big forehand winner down the line, the Brit set up a couple of set points for herself and then converted the very first one to draw the first blood.
Playing the more patient game, King allowed her opponent to make mistakes in the second set. Her controlled serve was the real difference between the two women in the set as she achieved an astonishing 70 percent first serve conversion. Breaking the serve twice in the set, King took a reasonable game score lead. She had no problems converting her service games as she evened the set score 1-1.
Looking to outlast the challenger, King let the Brit take the initiatives and displayed professional tennis. Baltacha couldn’t handle the pressure and committed 11 unforced errors in the set as she eventually wore out. Expressing her disappointment, Baltacha siad
“I knew going into the match that it was going to be very difficult. She’s got a good game on clay and she’s playing very well. She took Cibulkova, so she was definitely not going to kind of lie down. No way,”
“My confidence is sky high, obviously, by having such a good clay season. And I feel like I’m very fit going into the grass season,” said further added.
King will take on Petra Kvitova in the third round play. Ninth seed Kvitova thrashed out Chinese Jie Zhang 6-4, 6-1 in her second round match-up.
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