Top 2 Seeds Survive In Bogotá
Published Feburary 15, 2011 11:36
BOGOTÁ, Colombia - The Top 2 seeds at the XIX Copa BBVA Colsanitas narrowly escaped defeat a day after the Top 2 seeds at the Cellular South Cup in Memphis went down.
No.1 seed Julia Goerges outlasted Olivia Sanchez in an almost three hour duel, 76(5) 26 75. The German withstood four set points in winning the first set and lost three straight games after taking a 5-2 third set lead before finally clinching the victory.
"It was a bit of an ugly win today," Goerges said. "It was my first match in the altitude and my first match after Fed Cup on clay, but I hope to play better next round. I'm happy that I won today. I fought until the end. It's great that I have an opportunity to play again and another chance for a good performance."
Tested just as much on Tuesday was second-seeded Polona Hercog, who happens to have just beaten Goerges this past weekend in Fed Cup. The Slovenian edged Pauline Parmentier, 67(2) 76(10) 62, in a match that featured the longest tie-break of the year so far in terms of amount of points. In fact, Parmentier had all three of her match points in that second set tie-break, but once Hercog secured it she got the first service break of the match in the first game of the third set and cruised from there.
Another contender, No.4 seed Arantxa Parra Santonja, was up a break in the third set against qualifier Beatriz García Vidagany when rain suspended play for the day. That will finish Wednesday and later in the day, Goerges will be in action again against Han Xinyun, who took out last year's champion, Mariana Duque Marino, in three sets. Hercog will take on Petra Martic in her second round match Thursday. Interestingly enough, Goerges and Hercog have each lost their only previous match-up against their unseeded round of 16 opponents.
