Wild card Abigail Spears overtakes Lauren Albanese in 2nd qualifying – Bell Challenge 2011
Wild card entrant Abigail Spears took on number eight seeded Lauren Albanese in the second qualifying round of the Bell Challenge 2011. The two compatriots dulled each other on indoor hard courts of PEPS Laval University Campus, Quebec City, Canada. After one hour and thirty eight minutes Spears stood victorious with a 6-3, 6-4.
The two had met twice prior to this event, the first time was in 2007 where Abigail had taken the match and the last time was at Albuquerque in New Mexico. As the two battled it out on hard courts during the second round Albanese avenged her loss and evened out the head to head to 1-1.
Meeting for the third time, Abigail won the toss and opened the score board to 1-0. In the following three games the players held their serves on alternate games but in the fourth game Spears broke for the first time and took a 3-1 lead. In the fifth game she smashed two consecutive aces at 30-love to secure her lead at 4-1. During the following four games each player won on their serve and in the last game Spears again smashed two successive aces at 30-15 to serve the set.
Spears smashed four aces, and had benefitted from hitting 73% of first serves on target in the opening set of the match. With forty one points out of the total seventy five in the first set, Spears won the set without her serve being broken once.
Opening the second set was Albanese, who was broken in the first game by Spears , she then went on to hold her serve in the second game and took the lead 2-0. The score was evened out in the fourth game when Albanese broke back by forcing a double fault from Spears. The players went on to winning on their respective serves and eventually in the following four games balanced the score at 4-4. In the ninth game Spears from Albanese for the second and last time to take the lead at 5-4 and in the tenth as she smashed four successive aces she held her serve and won the second set and the match.
Spears serve was only broken once, that too in the second set. She was a stronger opponent and had smashed four aces and with a difference of four points, the wild card entrant conquered the number eight seeded Albanese to secure a berth in the qualifying final.
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