Victoria Azarenka beats Kirsten Flipkens to clear round two – US Open 2012
World number one, Victoria Azarenka, dumped the 133rd ranked Belgian, Kirsten Flipkens, to reach the third round of the US Open Championship on the eve of Wednesday. She squashed the qualifier in straight sets 6-2, 6-2;
making a strong impact in the starting phase of the tournament.
The 26-year-old Belgian commenced the match with a serve hold and her opponent followed it up with startling four winners to equalize the scores. However, the courageous Belgian qualifier wasn’t broken by that quick fire from the
Belarusian. She continued to impress and bagged another serve hold to deny her opponent form an early breakthrough.
Things suddenly took a shift and Azarenka squeezed a hard fought breakpoint in the fifth game to take a lead for the first time in the match. She continued to exert pressure on her rival and forced her to drop another breakpoint
that allowed her to serve for the match; serve hold to love rounded off the opening set proceedings.
The second set witnessed a perfect copy of the first. The Belgian qualifier looked good at a start and had a double breakpoint in the fourth game of the set but she couldn’t convert any of the allotted two. The 23-year-old Belarusian
didn’t waste time in firing back at her opponent and clinched two consecutive breakpoints to end the resistance of her rival.
Azarenka commented, "I think it was a good performance. It was difficult with the wind, but I adjusted really well. Her game was also a little bit unpredictable. She likes to move her opponent around and has a lot of variety, and
maybe it wasn't as easy as the score looks, but I moved well, which is important in the wind."
Talking about her next opponent, the top seed said, “She's definitely a really tough opponent - she's had big matches and big results. It's going to be interesting. We haven't played in a while. I actually don't remember the last
time we played."
Victoria Azarenka will contest her third round match against the 28th seed Chinese superstar, Jie Zheng. It is expected to be a better contest.
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