Fresh off her first grasscourt WTA title in Eastbourne, world No.18 Dominika Cibulkova summoned her best tennis to beat world No.53 Mirjana Lucic-Baroni of Croatia in the first round of Wimbledon 2016.
The 1999 Wimbledon semifinalist Lucic-Baroni started out strong, going 3-1 up and having a chance to break for a 4-1 lead. However, her forehand on break point went long, Cibulkova held her serve, and leveled to 3-3 in the next game. A tight battle followed, especially in the eighth game in which Cibulkova wasted three break points, but the Slovak used her big chance in the twelfth game and broke Lucic-Baroni’s serve to avoid a tiebreak and take the set 7-5 in one hour and 15 minutes.
Cibulkova’s momentum was in full swing at the start of the second set, as she raced to a 4-0 lead, but Lucic-Baroni started complicating her opponent’s life when she won three straight games of her own, two of which were breaks. However, Cibulkova fought back to again go up a break, 5-3, and held serve in the next game to win 7-5 6-3 on her first match point.
When it comes to Cibulkova’s tennis outfit, just like I supposed, she didn’t wear the slightly colored version of the white Lacoste Spring Dress that’s available at retail and that Lacoste promoted as her Wimbledon look, rather, Domi sported a modified all-white version of the item. (photo: Jimmie48)
