Francesca Schiavone has been defeated by Marion Bartoli in the first round of the Qatar Ladies Open which is being played at Doha. Bartoli won the match in the straight sets by 7-6(5), 6-3.
In the next round, Bartoli will face Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia who made her way into the second round with a win over Bethanie Mattek-Sands of USA.
Bartoli didn’t have a good start in the match against Schiavone. She dropped her serve in the second game of the opening set and got trailed by 0-3. The next five games went with the serve and at the end of the eighth game; Bartoli was trailed by 3-5. The Frenchwoman got a breakthrough in the ninth game and then, she held her serve in the next game to level the scores.
Both the players held their serve in the next couple of games and the scores got tied at 6-6.
In the tie breaker, both the players fought hard for each and every point, but, it was Bartoli who prevailed eventually.
In the second set, Bartoli again had a poor start and she dropped her serve in the very first game. But, she recovered quickly by breaking Schiavone’s serve in the second game. There were no breakthroughs in the next three games and at the end of the fifth game; the score was 3-2 in the favour of Bartoli.
In the sixth game, Bartoli managed to sneak another breakthrough and then, by serving out the next game, she got ahead by 5-2. Schiavone desperately needed breakthroughs to prevent Bartoli from running away with the match, but, she didn’t succeed in that. With a serve hold in the 9th game, Bartoli won the match and cruised into the next round.