Bartoli the victim of the tournament’s first upset.
MUTUA MADRID OPEN Madrid, Spain May 5-13, 2012 $5,189,603/Premier Clay/Outoors
Saturday, May 5, 2012
Singles - First Round (5) Samantha Stosur (AUS) d. Petra Martic (CRO) 75 46 76(5) Petra Cetkovska (CZE) d. (10) Vera Zvonareva (RUS) 62 62 Mona Barthel (GER) d. Julia Goerges (GER) 64 61 Christina McHale (USA) d. Sofia Arvidsson (SWE) 64 75 Sorana Cirstea (ROU) d. (7) Marion Bartoli (FRA) 67(6) 64 63 Klara Zakopalova (CZE) d. Iveta Benesova (CZE) 64 76(5) (WC) Venus Williams (USA) d. Simona Halep (ROU) 61 46 76(6) (WC) Sílvia Soler-Espinosa (ESP) d. Tamira Paszek (AUT) 67(2) 62 62 Doubles - First Round Medina Garrigues/Parra Santonja (ESP/ESP) d. Kuznetsova/A.Radwanska (RUS/POL) 75 63 (WC) Pavlyuchenkova/Safarova (RUS/CZE) d. Begu/Peer (ROU/ISR) 63 76(3) Singles Qualifying - Final Round (11) Anastasia Rodionova (AUS) d. (1) Pauline Parmentier (FRA) 67(2) 61 62 Andrea Hlavackova (CZE) d. (4) Hsieh Su-Wei (TPE) 63 67(5) 63 (7) Varvara Lepchenko (USA) d. (14) Laura Pous-Tio (ESP) 62 62 (8) Johanna Larsson (SWE) d. Anna Chakvetadze (RUS) 26 64 75 (10) Mathilde Johansson (FRA) d. Mariana Duque-Mariño (COL) 76(2) 76(5) (12) Lucie Hradecka (CZE) d. Alla Kudryavtseva (RUS) 63 16 64 (16) Lourdes Domínguez Lino (ESP) d. (WC) Estrella Cabeza Candela (ESP) 63 64 Jill Craybas (USA) d. Marta Domachowska (POL) 75 60
The Mutua Madrid Open seventh seed exits the tournament after falling in the first round of the main draw against Sorana Cirstea in three sets.
This Saturday the women’s main draw got under way in singles and doubles. It also provided the biggest upset of the Mutua Madrid Open so far. Seventh seed Marion Bartoli has had to wave goodbye to the WTA Premier Mandatory tournament after losing to Romania’s Sorana Cirstea in three sets.
The French player took the first set 8-6 in the tie-break. Cirstea found her feet in the second set though and looked much more comfortable in the Manolo Santana Centre Stadium and improved the effectiveness of her first serve from 53 to 71%. However the real reason she won it 6-4 was due to her ability to break her opponent’s serve.
Originally winning just 36% of her points on her opponent’s service, she increased that figure to 62% to come back into the match. She broke Bartoli’s serve four times to equal the tie after she had been trailing 3-1 in the second set. And in the final set she managed to break the favourite’s serve yet another two times, winning it 6-3. Sorana Cirstea will play either Tsvetana Pironkova or Anabel Medina in the second round.
Meanwhile, the main doubles draw got underway with victory for the Spanish partnership formed by Anabel Medina and Arantxa Parra, who saw off Svetlana Kuznetsova and Agnieszka Radwanska in an hour and 21 minutes. This win puts the Spaniards through to the last sixteen, where they will face the victors from the match between Raquel Kops-Jones/Abigail Spears and Yaroslava Shvedova/Galina Voskoboeva. The pair composed of Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Lucie Safarova, competing at the tournament thanks to a wild card, saw off Irina-Camelia Begu and Shahar Peer 6-3 y 7-6. By Santi Retortillo | Source photo: Mutua Madrid Open
