Varvara Lepchenko and Agnes Szavay won their opening round matches of the Sony Ericsson Open
World number 82 Varvara Lepchenko of the United States defeated compatriot, Coco Vandeweghe in the first round of the Sony Ericson Open at Miami, Florida on Wednesday night. Lepchenko took only 82 minutes to eject the wildcard
competitor in straight sets 6-2, 6-3, advancing to the second round of the draws.
Lepchenko extended her head-to-head lead against Vandeweghe to 3-0 after registering her third victory of the running WTA (Women’s Tennis Association) season at Miami. She had least trouble in overcoming her bleak opponent and
took full advantage of her mistakes in the game. Vandeweghe’s serve percentage was just 52 and she slopped plenty of unforced errors, including 10 costly double faults, which wore her out in the game.
The 82nd ranked American crafted 12 opportunities to crack serve breaks and cashed in just six chances, three in each set, to wrap up the contest. An aggressive start was seen from both competitors, as they exchanged
two serve breaks to take the scores to 4-2, with Lepchenko leading. A crucial break point by Lepchenko sealed off the opening set at 6-2, giving her a 1-0 advantage in the match.
Six double faults in the next set from Vandeweghe gave ample opportunity to her opponent to crack three serve breaks. Lepchenko served with 77 per cent accuracy in the second set to collect 15 out of 20 first serve points and close
out the contest at 6-3. She will take on the 12th seed Czech, Petra Kvitova in the next round of the competition. Kvitova received a bye to reach the second round.
In another opening round match of the evening, Agnes Szavay of Hungary outplayed the Chinese qualifier Shuai Zhang in an enthralling contest. Szavay made a tremendous come back in the game after dropping the opening set and concluded
victory at 2-6, 6-3, 6-2, in one hour and fifty one minutes.
World number 44 Szavay had a sloppy start to the contest, as her Chinese opponent cracked four serve breaks at her to push her out of the first set. Zhang delivered 81 per cent first serve on target to seal the opener at 6-2.
An amazing momentum swing was seen in the following set as the Hungarian came out firing at her opponent. Despite of an ordinary first serve percentage of 47, Szavay stung three serve breaks in the second set to make way right
back in the contest. She secured 32 out of 56 total points to bag the second set at 6-3, enforcing a third.
Szavay carried on her winning momentum in the decider, cracking two immediate serve breaks to lead 4-1 in the third set. Her first serve rose impressively to 74 and she took 34 points from the total of 56 in the set to conclude
an emphatic victory at 6-2. Szavay will be taking on the 17th seed Russian, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the second round of the Sony Ericsson Open. The Russian received a bye to reach the second round of the tournament.
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