Anastasiya Yakimova defeats Lindsay Lee-Waters; advances in the qualifiers of the Estoril Open
Second seeded Belarusian Anastasiya Yakimova slew American Lindsay Lee-Waters with a double breadstick to advance into the final qualifying round of the 2011 Estoril Open on Sunday.
Ranked 110th in the WTA Premier rankings, Yakimova is in great form this season and recently won the Nassau ITF title after defeating fifth seeded German Angelique Kerber. She had won seven out of her last ten matches
and reached the second round from qualifiers at Miami. The Belarusian exited from the opening rounds at Marbella and Fes before entering this WTA event.
The 24-year-old entered as a different person at Estoril Court Central and rallied past Romanian Alexandra Cadantu by 7-6(6), 4-6, 6-2 mouth watering match in the first qualifier round held earlier that day. She converted twelve
out of nineteen breakpoint opportunities to her advantage to clinch the match in around four hours.
She then faced the 33-year-old American and completely outplayed her in every department of tennis. In the opening set, Yakimova held her entire serves spectacularly through her amazing forehands and backhands. She then saved both
breakpoint faced and converted two out of nine breakpoint opportunities to her advantage to earn the first breadstick. The Belarusian had a higher first serve share of 81 percent and registered an impressive 71 percent win on it.
Yakimova kept momentum rolling into the second set and held her opening serve plausibly. She lost her serve once but broke the American serve four times to register an assuring 6-1 score line again. The Belarusian again produced
a higher first serve share and earned a convincing 67 percent win on it. She committed double faults once and fired an ace to sugar coat her victory.
World number 183, Lee-Waters on the other side of net had an acceptable first serve share of 74 percent but only earned 50 percent win on it. In addition to this, she clobbered several unforced errors and nine double faults in
the match which made the difference. The American also squandered five breakpoint opportunities and showed dismal performance in this event.
Up next for Belarusian is Greek Eleni Daniilidou and she can overwhelm the threat from this unseeded player if she carries her momentum.
The 28-year-old Greek reached this spot by overpowering seventh seeded Russian Alexandra Panova and Chinese Shengnan Sun on the same day. She converted nine out of eighteen breakpoint opportunities to her advantage to win in a
three set thriller against the Russian seed and capitalised on five out of six breakpoint opportunities to clinch in straight sets against the Chinese.
Tags: