Third seed Monica Puig survived an early scare Tuesday evening, outlasting France’s Oceane Dodin 6-2, 4-6, 6-3 to earn a berth in the second round of the 2016 Citi Open, where she will meet the winner of the match between Lauren Davis and Shelby Rogers.
Puig Breaks Twice En Route to Securing Opener
After a trio of reasonably comfortable holds to begin the match, it was the third-seeded Puerto Rican who seemed to have settled in the quicker of the two, breaking at the second time of asking to draw first blood and take a commanding 3-1 lead. From there, Puig continued to cruise on serve, while Dodin continued to struggle to find her range, thus resulting in the consolidation of the early break for the Puerto Rican number one. After a pair of incredibly tight holds, it soon became evident that Puig was soon beginning to make even more inroads from the receiving end, capitalizing on a few untimely miscues from Dodin to capitalize on her first set point to take the opening set by six games to two.
Dodin’s Single Break Proves Decisive En Route to Forcing Decider
Despite being broken twice in the opening frame, Dodin had yet to create a single break point for herself—that was, until the third game of the second set. After forcing errors out of her Puerto Rican counterpart, the Frenchwoman soon found herself with a pair of break points of her own. Despite squandering the first of them, Dodin soon recovered and, at the second bite of the cherry, converted to earn her first break of the match—one that would later prove decisive in the final outcome of the second frame.
From there, the rest of the set would go with serve, all culminating in a tense, hard-fought tenth game. Serving to force a decider at 5-4, Dodin seemed to be well on her way to doing just that when she earned herself a pair of set points and one later in the game, alas she was unable to take any of them. The Frenchwoman would soon be in danger of rueing those missed chances as patches of inconsistency would result in a golden opportunity for Puig to get the break back, however Dodin refused to give in. With the help of her fearless, first-strike tennis, the world number 124 would promptly erase any dangers of conceding the early break, before finally putting the set to rest at the fifth time of asking, winning it by six games to four.
Puig Ultimately Proves Too Strong in the End
After a set decided by an early break on her own serve, Puig was desperately looking to get off to a better start in the early stages of the decider, however, things did not exactly go according to plan. In the first game, Puig was twice in danger of going down an early break but on both occasions, the third-seeded Puerto Rican seemed to come up with the goods, ultimately saving both break points en route to securing the opening game. From there, the pair would exchange a pair of reasonably straightforward holds before more break point opportunities were created—this time on the Dodin serve.
Raising her level when it mattered most, Puig earned her first break in seven return games in emphatic style, breaking to love to take a crucial 3-1 lead. However, despite holding a game point on her own serve in the game that followed suit, the Puerto Rican was unable to consolidate the early advantage, much to her dismay. Taking full advantage, Dodin broke back to get back on serve, trailing 2-3. This pattern would continue until the ninth game, where Puig while serving for the match, was finally able to stop the rot on her own serve.
After breaking for the fifth time, the third-seeded Puerto Rican had little trouble serving out the victory, doing so at the first bite of the cherry to seal a hard-fought 6-2, 4-6, 6-3 victory, almost an hour before play was suspended overnight due to inclement weather.