Aleksandra Krunic battles past Marta Sirotkina to reach the main draw – Tashkent Open 2011
Qualifying fifth seed, Serb Aleksandra Krunic rallied past qualifying fourth seed, Russia’s Marta Sirotkina in a three set nail biter match at the Tashkent Open 2011, a hard court WTA International tournament held in Tashkent,
Uzbekistan. She warded off late resistance by the 20-year-old Russian to not only register a 6-4, 4-6, 7-6(2) victory but also secured a main draw spot on Monday.
Ranked 232nd in the WTA Premier rankings, Krunic fought back hard to conquer the Russian, ranked four places above her, in almost two and half hours at the Tashkent Tennis Center. She lost her way in the second set but
dominated in the final set tie-breaker to book a main draw spot.
18-year-old Serb quickly bagged the opener after capitalising on both breakpoint opportunities to their advantage. She took the first blood in the fifth game but lost her edge in the proceeding game. However, she held her composure
in her remaining serves and broke the Russian’s serve again in the last game to win the opening set with a 6-4 score line.
The higher ranked Russian founded her rhythm in the opening game of the second set as she broke Krunic’s serve to take the lead. However, she squandered her lead by gifting away her serve in the very next game. Sirotkina held remaining
serves after pinging the balls expertly onto the lines and converted another breakpoint opportunity to her advantage in the ninth game to eventually bag the equaliser with a 6-4 win.
Krunic continued displaying dismal performance and lost her serve early on in the fifth game. However, she roared back in the eighth game to square the scores at 4-4 and later held remaining serves to drag the set to a tie-breaker.
The Serb then cruised her way into the main draw after prevailing in it.
Summing up the match, Krunic played exceptionally well. She spilled few errors and only three double faults and saved eight out of twelve breakpoints faced. The Serb then put the cherry on the match by cashing in on all four breakpoint
opportunities to her advantage and by smashing six beautiful aces.
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