Vera Dushevina ousts Aravane Rezai in the 1st round – Mercury Open 2011
Initiating on the1st of August 2011 was the first round of the Mercury Open 2011. The Russian Vera Dushevina and the French Aravane Rezai were meeting for the second time in their professional career at the La Costa Resort and
Spa, Carlsbad, California. Dushevina won the match after bouncing back from a set down 4-6, 6-3, 6-4.
The two had taken up the gauntlet for the first time on the clay courts at the Charleston Event in 2007. Rezai had won the match in a straight set victory 6-1, 7-5. Hence, Rezai won the head to head and took the lead 1-0. The Higher
power had granted Dushevina her prayer and she was able to equalize by winning this match.
Dushevina won the pitch and serving with a little nervousness opened the set score 1-0, she then hit an ace and in the next few moments struck 2 double faults hitting the net. While her opponent’s accuracy wavered once, striking
a line fault and in throughout the set she hit aced four times.
Neither of the players had an exceptional serve but Rezai’s serves were above the par which enabled her to win 52% of her total serve points along with a commendable return while, Dushevina had mere 43% of her total win in the
serve along with, a relatively better return serve which was 48%.
Although, Rezai was unable to save her break points she broke her opponent thrice and won the set with 54% of the total set points.
The second set saw a reversal of events and this time it was Rezai who was serving with resoluteness but only to see her lose concentration. She struck two line faults and was not able to ace. It seemed that luck was not on her
side and she performed unsatisfactorily. Her defence was weak and she was only able to win 30 percent of her total return serves along with, an average serve.
Mean While, Dushevina availed the opportunity to take the lead in the set, she was able to catch her opponent off guard and slammed her opponent with strong ground strokes which the French could not return. Therefore, the Russian
was able to win a walloping 70% of her total serve points along with, an above average 54% in the total return points. Dushevina won the set with almost twice as many points as her opponents.
By the end of the second set both the players had bagged a set each and thus, both had to battle won more set in order to determine whose staying to play another round and whose going home.
The third set saw Rezai smash four aces and win 62% of her total serve points. The two did not have a strong back hand which would enable them to return each other’s shots; however, the Russian had bagged 7 more points than her
French opponent’s.
Rezai had lost the set with 2 more points than Dushevina because she was unable to win any break points, while; her opponent had saved and also won a break point.
The 24-year-old Russian was able to win the later two sets and managed to qualify into the second round of the Mercury Open 2011.
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