Eighteen-year old Vania King stunned top seed Marion Bartoli in the first round on a day of upsets at the USD 175,000 WTA Sunfeast Open in Kolkata on Tuesday.
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King, ranked 78 places lower than her fancied opponent, played an intelligent game and unleashed an array of delightlful strokes to account for Bartoli 6-1, 7-5 in the match that stretched past midnight.
The promising King, who turned pro only last year, broke the world number 12 in the fourth and sixth games of the first set.
The second set was more competitive, though Vania constantly put pressure on Bartoli's service. Vania got four break points in the prolonged third game, but Bartoli managed to save it in the end.
Vania, on the other hand, had little problems holding her serves. The games went with serves till the eighth, but in the ninth Vania broke the Wimbledon finalist to go up 5-4.
However, Bartoli broke back in the very next game, but Vania again demolished her rival in the 11th to lead 6-5.
Serving for the match, Vania hit a good passing shot and wrapped up the 98-minute contest by firing an ace.
"Vania played better, I had never played her before. So, I was not tactically prepared. The slow surface also helped her to return the balls better", Bartoli said after her ouster.
Earlier in the day, Tatiana Poutchek of Belarus caused a big upset by ousting fifth seed Alla Kudryavtseva of Russia, while Israel's Czibora Obziller showed the door to ninth seeded Russian Yaroslava Shvedova.