Anastasija Sevastova overpowers Jugic-Salkic in qualifiers – Nurnberger Gastein Ladies 2012
Latvian starlet, Anastasija Sevastova, trashed Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Mervana Jugic-Salkic in straight sets in the qualifying competition of Nurnberger Gastein Ladies 2012 on Sunday. She penned down a 6-3, 6-3 victory against the Croatian resident to secure
a spot in the final qualifying round at this red clay court tournament held in Bad Gastein, Austria.
Sevastova remained on the right path to book a place in the main draw at this WTA (Women’s Tennis Association) International tournament after tumbling the 32-year-old. The contestants last fought each other at the Les Contamines WTA event and after pocketing
this match in 80 minutes, the Austrian resident maintained her winning record against Jugic-Salkic.
The 22-year-old blasted into the opening set and after breaking the Bosnian’s serve twice, she jumped to a 5-1 lead. Apart from losing her edge in the eighth game, Sevastova swiped her serve once more and pulled out the opener with a 6-3 score line. She
dusted away one out of two breakpoints she faced and cashed in three out of nine break opportunities to inch towards the glory.
Ranked 218th in the WTA Premier Rankings, Sevastova lost her direction towards the follow-up set and suffered the initial blow in the fifth game to go 2-3 down. However, she unleashed barrage of groundstrokes after that and reeled off the last four games
in a row, consequently sealing the set by winning six games to three. The Latvian again saved one out of two breakpoints she encountered and capitalised on two out of five break opportunities to prevail.
All in all, the Liepaja native spilled fewer errors and clobbered 76 points in the match. She manipulated a slightly lower first serve share of 60 per cent as opposed to her opponent’s 61 per cent but impressively marked 24 out of 37 points on it.
Up next for Sevastova is Chichi Scholl who took down the local wildcard entrant, Yvonne Neuwirth, in straight sets to set up this battle.
The top seed, Dia Evtimova of Bulgaria, also stole the limelight later that day. She rallied past the Austrian wildcard enterer, Janina Toljan, in a three-set thriller to set up this meeting.
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