"Michelle powers through to 3rd Round

NBTA student Michelle Larcher de Brito continued her impressive run at the Sony Ericsson Open with a thrilling 2-6, 6-3, 7-5 victory over 17th seeded Agnieszka Radwanska. Larcher de Brito, who is only 15 years old, played an incredible match to pull off the upset and win the biggest match of her career. She simply outslugged Radwanska, and one big stat that pops out is the fact that she didn’t have one double fault. As we noted in her first match, Larcher de Brito struggled with her serve. Well, not today. This was a major factor throughout the match.

In the first set it was all Radwanska, as she demonstrated why she is ranked in the Top-20 in the world. She controlled play and dominated the set. Michelle came out firing in the second set, getting a break in the first game to go up 2-0. She didn’t relent, hitting powerful groundstrokes from both sides of the court. She must have a radar for the lines too, because she was hitting them throughout the match. After the second set, Radwanska took back-to-back injury timeouts and the trainer worked on her foot.

In the third set, Michelle pulled out to a 3-0 lead and looked like she was going to cruise. But that was not to be, as Radwanska came roaring back to even the match at 3-3. Then, the two went back and forth until 5-5. The rallies were long, and the points were dramatic. Both girls were giving it their all, and the crowd was very appreciative. At 5-5, Michelle held and then she broke Radwanska to win the match.

She will now face Shahar Peer in the third round. This should be a very similar match to the one she just played. Peer, like Radwanska, won’t be able to overpower Michelle, but she will get tons of balls back. Michelle cannot afford to get out to a slow start like she has done in the past two matches, because sooner or later that is going to catch up with her. Whatever the case, we are all looking forward to the match."

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