KremlinCup Russia, Round 2

 

by Gerhard

Anastassia Myskina def. Magui Serna 6-3 and 6-1

Though both players hold their serve pretty save at the beginning of the match, it was Myskina who dominated every ralley, and it was surely not Sernas great serve, that allowed her to equal the score for 1-1, but rather a few unforced and absolutely unnecessary errors of the russian at Sernas service game.

So actually it was not Serna who hold her serve, it was Anastassia who did NOT break her. But that should change soon. She broke the serve of the left handed spanish player for a 3-1 lead without showing great effort but then tried to hold with even less effort, which was pretty stupid as she had to concider a re-break straight away.

But now Anastassia knew what she had to do. She made her opponent run all over the court to make sure she cant use her dangerous ground strokes properly, broke her again and won the first set after 29 minutes with 6-3.

Set two started like a copy of set 1. Sernas second service game was broken but now Anastassia started enjoying herself and the match, and finally showed bits of her abilities on court. When she broke Serna for the second time in a row she did that, by first hitting three excellent drop shots in a row and then watching sernas attemt of playing a drop shot ending in the net.

After all, Anastassia did not show her best tennis today, but she did enough to win that match savely with 6-3 and 6-1 and to proceed to the quarterfinal, where she surely has to show better tennis as today.