Michelle Larcher de Brito by Bollettieri

We headed over to see Michelle Larcher de Brito play her first round match against Ekaterina Makarova.

We were hoping for a win considering the previous results of the day. After about 10 minutes of the match, it didn’t appear that was going to happen. Makarova dominated the match and was frustrating the heck out of Michelle. Like Kei, Michelle couldn’t get a first serve in and her penetrating groundstrokes weren’t hurting Makarova.

Michelle is only 15 years old, but she needs to add some variety to her game.

She can pound the ball with the best of them, but adding a drop shot and a slice is a must. This will keep her opponents off guard and also change the pace of the rallies.

Back to the match…Makarova won the first set 6-3 and went up 5-1 in the second set.

We were packing our bags and preparing for another loss when something clicked in Michelle’s head.

She went off!

She saved two match points at 5-2 and stormed back to take the lead 6-5.

Then, in the tiebreaker she went down 3-0.

The crowd was going nuts, but the young girl kept her composure taking the breaker 7-3.

The third set was all Michelle as Makarova tried to slow the match down by taking a bathroom break and calling for the trainer. It wasn’t going to stop Michelle though, as she won the match 3-6, 7-6(3), 6-3.

It was an amazing win, and it made the wait well worth it.

Everyone was all smiles at the end!

Congrats to Michelle on a great win, and we hope you continue it in the second round.

Texto e Foto : Nick Bollettieri