In a match that was intended to finish on day four but ended up being played in both day five and six, number eleven seed Timea Bacsinszky edged dangerous Romanian Monica Niculescu. Last year, this was a round four match and the winner would progress to the quarterfinals. This time, the players were playing for a ticket to the third round and it ended once again in a three-set Bacsinszky win.
Niculescu shocks Bacsinszky to get the lead
After a court change and several rain delays, the two players stepped on court 15 to begin their match. The Romanian was the one to draw the first blood, as she held and broke for a 2-0 lead. Bacsinszky started a bit rusty and she easily fell victim of her opponent. However, the Swiss quickly stepped up getting more aggressive from the forehand wing, which is the big drawback of both players, so she broke and then held. In the fifth game, she secured another break firing four winners to get the lead. She failed to consolidate it, though, as the Romanian broke back in a marathon game with many unforced errors. After a couple of holds, at 4 all, Niculescu held and broke for the first set. Bacsinszky lost the final game with many unforced errors and in that definitely helped the slice of the Romanian.
The world number twelve was by far the aggressive one, but Niculescu was the one that managed to drag the errors away from the Swiss, something that the Swiss usually does with her opponents.
Bacsinszky bounces back to force a decider
The number eleven seed came out firing in the second set and with the help of some errors by her counterpart, she took a crucial 2-0 lead. After a love hold by Niculescu, Bacsinszky continued to swing freely and she was coming more and more to the net, while in the same time the Romanian was not helping herself by committing unforced errors. The only thing that Niculescu managed to do is to get another hold, as Bacsinszky closed the set 6-2.
The Swiss seemed to have solved the Niculescu problem in this set. She saw that the key was to be more aggressive so she can avoid getting trapped in rallies with her opponents slice. She was pretty much playing a trickier, less aggressive version of herself and she realized that sooner than later. The rain delay probably helped her as well.
Bacsinszky seals the deal in the third
As the match got suspended, the players got again to play the next day. The Romanian held in the first game to start the decider, but Bacsinszky would go on to not lose another game and close the match in style. The set was closer than the score implied, but the Swiss played relentlessly the big points and did not let Niculescu have a chance to turn the tides.
The Swiss was fired up in this final set. She played really aggressive hitting many winners and coming a lot to the net. Also, she managed to get more shots from her powerful backhand swing, which has always helped her.
Stats
There was a huge difference in the numbers of the two players. Timea Bacsinszky ended up hitting 40 winners, something really rare for the Swiss as she is not considered a hard-hitting player. At the same time, Niculescu could not find herself in an aggressive position, hitting only ten winners while she had more than the double unforced errors. Also, it was quite surprising is that Bacsinszky came to the net 42 times. Moreover, both had high first serve percentages, but Bacsinszky used it better and won more points on her first serve than her counterpart.
If we exclude the shaky first set, it was a great performance by the Swiss that showed that she can play aggressive tennis and has a wide variety of weapons that can lead her far in the championships.