Akgul Amanmuradova annihilates Madalina Gojnea to reach the second round – Internazionali Femminili di Palermo 2011
World number 98, Akgul Amanmuradova of Uzbekistan, kept her part of the bargain with a 7-6(4), 6-2 defeat of Madalina Gojnea in the first round of Internazionali Femminili
di Palermo 2011, being played here at Palermo, Italy.
It was an emphatic loss for the world number 149, who was participating here at the tournament for the first time and was palpably suffering from Amanmuradova’s power and
variety in game, losing the match in just one hour 50 minutes.
One and a half weeks after her first round defeat at the Collector Swedish Open, Amanmuradova’s principal objective, to grab the match, was managed without too much fuss,
although she will not have been too happy with the way she served in the opening set.
The match started with an aggressive attack by Gojnea and raced into a 4-1 lead but Amanmuradova broke back to draw level before taking the set into a tie-break.
Amanmuradova, who is four years older than Gojnea, then had to come from a min-break down to claim the opening set with six games to Gojnea’s four.
In the opener, Amanmuradova hit 94 percent of first serve and won 66 percent behind her first serve. Gojnea, while playing at her worst, lost the opener with a huge difference
of 8 points during the opening set.
The Uzbek stepped up a gear in the second set and opened a 2-1 lead but Gojnea showed real heart to keep battling and broke Amanmuradova’s serve to stay in the match.
Eventually, Amanmuradova, the 2007 Mumbai tournament winner, prevailed 7-6(4), 6-2 to reach the second round of the tournament for the first time in her career.
Although, the Romanian woman upped the level of her game in the decider, she could not offer any stouthearted resistance, which could shake Amanmuradova’s faith in her game.
In an attempt to end Amanmuradova’s queenship, the Romanian did enough to land with a whopping 82 percent on her first serve, but it was to no avail as the Uzbek had already claimed the match in straight sets.
Amanmuradova’s stunning performance against the Romanian Gojnea, led to her status as the pundit’s favourite for the second round as she meets either Elena Bovina of Russia
or Czech Petra Cetkovska.
Although Amanmuradova is just 6/14 in her year-to-date win/loss mark, the Uzbek’s yesterday’s performance highly suggests that she can pull off surprises in her up-coming
matches.
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