Anna Cakvetadze retires; Zuzana Kucova advances at the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix
Lucky Loser Slovakian Zuzana Kucova, despite losing in the qualifiers reached the main draw and earned a victory in the first round of 2011 Porsche Tennis Grand Prix after the Russian Anna Chakvetadze was forced to retire on Tuesday.
Ranked 133rd in the WTA Premier rankings, Kucova hasn’t had much activity this season and was ousted from the qualifiers at Australian Open and Miami before entering this tournament. She reformed her strategy and entered
this tournament in full confidence as she trashed Luxembourgian Mandy Minella and German wild card Scarlett Werner with a breadstick in the first two qualifying rounds. Her booming spell didn’t end when she lost in the final qualifying round to 3rd seeded
Austrian Tamira Paszek. A withdrawal of one of the qualifiers, allowed Kucova an entry into the main draw.
Kucova earned a win over her higher ranked Russian rival in almost two hours when Chakvetadze fell ill and retired. The Slovak lost the first set but made a comeback after winning the second set. In the decider, when the scores
were tied at 4-4, she clinched as her opponent was forced to retire after dizziness.
The Slovak clobbered six double faults and several unforced errors to gift away her serves in the opening set. Despite converting one break to her advantage, she played poorly and had a lower first serve share. As a result she
couldn’t even hold her single serve in the entire set and lost with a breadstick.
Kucova turned the tables around in the second set as she exchanged three breaks and then broke the Russian’s serve again in the twelfth game to clinch the equalizer with a 7-5 win. She played much better this time and had a higher
first serve share of 65 percent as compared to Chakvetadze’s 47 percent.
In the final set, the Slovak exchanged an early break and levelled the scores at 4-4 when she eventually clinched due to her opponent getting ill.
The 24-year-old Chakvetadze earned a breadstick in the first set and was on a better side until she fell ill. She also retired from Dubai and Indian Wells and reached this spot through qualifiers.
"I started the match feeling fine but I knew it [the dizziness] was coming and started to feel worse in the second set, the same feeling as the last two times," the sad Chakvetadze said. "I saw the doctors at home before the tournament
and they told me everything would be OK, which is why I decided to play here."
Kucova will next play top seeded Dane Caroline Wozniacki who received a bye into the second round. She really needs her luck to upset the world number one to advance. Wozniacki is in her top form this season and had already won
three titles including the recent Family Circle Cup last week.
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