Safarova squeezes past Keothavong
British No.1 goes out in Miami…
Anne Keothavong lost a hard-fought first round battle with Czech Lucie Safarova at the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami on Wednesday.
To see pictures from the match visit the gallery
World No.48 Safarova was pushed all the way before going through to round two of the $4.5 million event with a 6-4, 7-5 victory in just over an hour and a half.
Keothavong fought hard throughout, but lost serve at key stages of each set, lapses that ultimately made the difference.
The Londoner did well to hold onto her serve early on in the contest when she saved break points at 2-3 and 3-4 in the opener, only for Safarova to finally make the breakthrough in Keothavong’s next service game to wrap up the first set 6-4.
The Middlesex right-hander responded superbly, however, piling on the pressure on Safarova’s serve at the beginning of the second.
She had break point chances in the first two of Safarova’s service games in set two, and although they slipped away the Englishwoman struck on her fourth break point of the set to go 3-2 ahead.
The British No.1 kept her nose in front until she served for the set at 5-4 and came mighty close to forcing a decider when she held a set point.
Safarova dug deep, however, survived the set point and broke back on her third break point of the game.
After holding for a 6-5 lead the Czech lefty then applied the pressure with Keothavong serving to stay in the match.
She raced to three match points and although Keothavong saved the first two, she couldn’t survive a third and Safarova notched up her fourth game on the trot and a place in the second round against Swiss Patty Schnyder.