Varvara Lepchenko edges past Eugenie Bouchard to clear opening round – Bell Challenge 2011
Unseeded in the tournament, Varvara Lepchenko of the United States registered a hard-fought victory against the local wildcard entrant, Eugenie Bouchard, in the opening round of Bell Challenge on Monday night.
106th ranked Lepchenko toiled for two hours and nine minutes of play before settling the final scores at 6-1, 6-7(0), 6-3, to get a pass to the second round of the $220,000 WTA (Women’s Tennis Association) tournament.
The American registered her 11th victory in the running WTA season by taking down Bouchard in-front of her home crowd at Quebec, Canada. Lepchenko was off to a flying start in the game, pocketing the opener in no time
to get the upper hand in the contest vey early. The 17-year-old Canadian made a tremendous recovery to take the second set in a tie breaker round to bring her down on even terms once again but the American got hold of the final set to come out as the winner
in the end.
Lepchenko delivered just 50 per cent of her serve on target but clinched 32 out of 43 first serve points in the game to drive her opponent out of the competition. Bouchard also bagged 32 out of 53 first serve points in the contest
but she was outdone by eight cracking serve breaks from the belligerent American contestant to finish on the losing side in the end.
Lepchenko had a pathetic first serve accuracy of just 38 per cent in the opener but she nailed three straight serve breaks to rocket away to 6-1, taking the opening set in style. The following set witnessed a trade of two serve
breaks each from both contestants, dead locking the scores at 6-6 to enforce a tie breaker round into play. Lepchenko lost all her steam in the decider and failed to clinch a single point in the tie breaker, letting Bouchard take it at 7-6(0).
The American then cracked in three break point conversions in the final set to conclude a well-fought victory at 6-3, getting to the second round of Bell Challenge to face the third seeded Austrian, Tamira Paszek, for a place in
the quarters.
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