Victoria Azarenka defeats Polona Hercog in 2nd round – China Open 2011
Second seeded Victoria Azarenka took apart Slovenian Polona Hercog in the second round of the China Open 2011. On the 5th of October the players took up the gantlet on outdoor hard courts of the National Tennis Center
in Beijing, China. After one hour and fifty minutes Bulgarian second seeded Azarenka whiped Hercog in a straight set victory of 7-6(8), 6-3.
Opening the first round was Azarenka and she held serve and then went on to breaking her adversary in the second game and in doing so she rolled the scoreboard to 2-0. Hercog made a comeback in the third and fourth game to equalize
the score at 2-2 by breaking back in the third and holding serve in the fourth.
In the following two game Hercog broke and then held serve to take the lead over Azarenka. During the following three games both the players handled their service games expertly by holding their serves and rolled the scoreboard
to 5-4. In the tenth game the score was tied at 5-5 as Azarenka capitalized on a breakpoint endorsed to her by Hercog. By the end of the last two games the score was pushed to a tiebreaker at 6-6.
The head-to-head run between the two players lost steam in the tiebreaker. Although Hercog managed to keep the score tied for the first four points, she soon lost her way as the second seed shifted into top gear rushing into a
6-3 lead. However, that was all that was seen of Azarenka on the scoreboard for a while as the Slovene capitalised off her opponent’s errant strokes to reel off three straight points to bring the score to even terms.
From there on the score progressed on even terms for the next four points with neither player letting up. It was only on the seventeenth point that the Belarusian reeled off two straight points to clinch a 10-8 tiebreaker win and
go one up in the set score.
Serving for the second set was Hercog and both the players broke each other back-to-back but were able place themselves on the scoreboard at 1-1. In the following four games the score had again tied at 3-3 and in the last three
games, Azarenka shifted to top gear. By utilizing the break-serve-break method she clogged the second set and the match to reserve a spot in the third round of the event.
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