Vives/Garrigues edge past Hsieh/Niculescu to reach the semis – New Haven Open 2011
In the doubles quarter-final of New Haven Open at Yale, the fourth seeded Spanish duo of Nuria Llagostera Vives and Anabel Medina Garrigues, outplayed the pair of Su-Wei Hsieh of Chinese Taipei and Monica Niculescu of Romania, on Tuesday afternoon.
In the enthralling contest that took place on the hard courts of the Cullman-Heyman Tennis Center in New Haven, Connecticut, United States, the Spanish team exhibited an amazing display of doubles tennis to claim victory in three sets, 1-6, 6-1, 10-8. The electrifying match lasted for just 63 minutes, with Vives and Garrigues getting a place in the semi-final of the WTA (Women’s Tennis Association) Premier Series tournament.
Hsieh and Niculescu fought valiantly till the last minute of the matchup but it was only the matter of time that Vives and Garrigues narrowly beat them to advance further in the tournament. Hsieh and Niculescu were off to a flying start in the opener and got one up in the game in no time but suddenly lost their impetus in the very next set to fall back on the back foot. They went neck-to-neck with the Spaniards in the final set but a critical mini-break from the fourth seeded pair proved decisive in the contest and took Vives and Garrigues to victory.
The Spaniards secured 26 out of 32 first serve points in the matchup, while their opponent followed them with 18 out of 27 points to lose the game. Bothe teams stung two serve breaks each in the contest, with the winner of the match being decided in the final third set.
Hsieh and Niculescu took an early 3-0 lead in the first set and kept playing aggressively to extend their lead to 5-1 with another break point conversion in the sixth game. The opening set fell to the name of Hsieh and Niculescu at 6-1 but Vives and Garrigues did the same in the next set, breaking their opponents twice to seal the set at 6-1.
With one set a piece, the final set was bound to be a thriller. Both duos played desperately to stay alive in the competition and kept the scores moving on even terms till Vives and Garrigues seized a vital mini-break to conclude victory at 10-8. The Spaniards move in to the semi-final of New Haven Open at Yale, where they will face the unseeded pair of Italians, Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci for a berth in the final of the tournament.
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