By Sean Bradley                                       Photo Credit: Natasha Peterson/Corleve
 
(August 31, 2011) In one of the many surprises of the week, American Christina McHale shocked eighth-seeded Marion Bartoli 7-6 (2), 6-2 in the second round of the US Open.

McHale has had a breakout summer, as she took out World No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki in Cincinnati and two-time Grand Slam champion Svetlana Kuznetsova last week in New Haven.

Perhaps those wins helped her composure today, as she displayed no nerves in her match against Bartoli.

With some big serving and well-placed, highly spun groundstrokes, McHale moved Bartoli around the court and forced her to make errors. After taking the first set, she broke Bartoli's serve in the first game of the second and fought her off for the rest of the match.

“I had to try and compete really hard in the second set because I knew she was going to try even harder, too, to get the second set because she lost the first," McHale said.

"Yeah, when I went from 3‑Love to 3‑2, I was like, C'mon, Christina, don't let it get back to 3‑all. That game was a big game to get it to 4‑2.” 

For the match, McHale hit 20 winners to 28 unforced errors, compared to Bartoli's 21 winners to 38 unforced errors.

She also broke Bartoli's serve five times, and she dropped serve only three.

McHale goes on to play against Maria Kirilenko, the 24th seed, who beat Vera Dushevina 6-1, 6-2.