Alexandra Panova beats Misaki Doi to reach the last eight – Tashkent Open 2012
World number 89, Alexandra Panova, dispatched the 122nd ranked Japanese professional, Misaki Doi, in the second round of the Tashkent Open on Wednesday. She won the encounter in straight sets taking just an hour and 33 minutes to book a berth
in the quarter-finals.
Both players were facing each other for the first time in their professional careers. So, there were no possible mind games that could be played at the hard courts of Uzbekistan. However, the superior ranking an immense experience titled the match in favour
of the Russian on paper.
The 21-year-old Japanese held her serve first up and her opponent followed the script precisely to level the scores at 1-1. Both players repeated the similar performance in the following two games and the scores moved on to 2-2. However, the most awaited
breakthrough arrived in the fifth game of the match when the 23-year-old Russian smashed a classic winner down the line. She protected the breakpoint with a serve hold but not before her opponent stretched her to the limits.
A swap of breakpoints pumped some energy into the match but not for long because the seventh seed Russian soon returned back to her sublime form with serves and didn’t allow her opponent to bounce back into the contest. She held her serve and won the opening
set; giving another frustrating first half defeat to the struggling 21-year-old Japanese.
The second set started off with a serve hold at both ends. However, Panova sneaked a breakthrough with the help of her opponent who sprayed the ball on three successive points; enabling her opponent to win a breakthrough without working hard for it. It was
a terrible serve game for Doi who needed a good start to the second set to keep her hopes high.
Panova made no mistake in consolidating her position; bagged a serve game and mounted a lead of 3-1 on her rival. No more breakpoints were witnessed at the arena. However, there was one close call for the Russian professional in the eighth game when she
was under the cosh and had to save two breakpoints to retain the lead.
Alexandra Panova locks horns with the second seed Pole, Urszula Radwanska, in the last eight.
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