Casey charging into last 16

Casey Dellacqua was flying the Australian flag wonderfully well to reach the third round and could have reasonably expected to start favourite to beat China's Zheng Jie.  As one of only two Australians left in singles, expectations for Casey had grown by the day, but so too had her confidence and it showed in her tennis as the two battled for early supremacy.

Zheng lost her  opening serve due mainly to unforced backhand errors and not helped by a double fault, so Casey was not required as yet to participate.  On her own serve Casey was solid, forehand again reliable and she led the contest 2-0 with a dream start.
Zheng steadied as she knew she must, forcing Casey into error from the back of the court, to finally put a number next to her name.  Casey became the bully by attacking the Zheng backhand and clinching her serve with a sound volley for 3-1.

While her backhand was receiving treatment, Zheng resorted to her forehand in her next service game with some success and it's winners assisted her to her second game for the set.
The sixth game was Casey's first real test, and when the ground strokes of Zheng had helped her to a break point,  questions were asked about ability to withstand this pressure.  Casey stood up to it very well, and proceeded to win the game and lead 4-2.
Despite hitting three winners in the seventh game, Zheng threw in too many unforced mistakes for what was required, and with Casey lurking waiting to pounce on every little chance, the break came.  5-2 with a serve to come for the set.

In a most impressive service game, Casey served a double fault, but at a relatively safe position, after winning several points from forced errors off the Zheng racquet.

The first set 6-2 to Dellacqua.

Set two began with another break of the Zheng serve, Casey still forcing her opponent into error and hitting a few splendid winners of her own.
However, the Zheng camp got a message to their player, pleading with her to not leave just yet.  Luckily she took the advice because the next game saw Casey off the boil and Zheng hit some of her winners just to show Casey that she was here to win this as well. 1-1
That worked Ok until the fifth game where Casey once more took advantage of a clutch of errors and a double fault to lead 3-2.

After the seventh game with Casey leading 4-3 with a break, Zheng had a medical time out after holding her chest so things looked bleak indeed.  Happily the heat had taken a toll but not serious enough as judged by the medical staff, and Zheng continued.  The break upset Casey more apparently, as she couldn't handle the attack from Zheng who hit a number of clean winners to break back for 4-4.

As quickly as she found herself back in the set and the match, Zheng's tennis fell away and she was broken pretty easily to trail 4-5, giving Casey Dellacqua the stage to serve out the match.

This she did winning 6-2 6-4