Anna Chakvetadze steals victory from Mariya Koryttseva in the final round qualifiers of the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix
Top seed from Russia, Anna Chakvetadze battled hard to overcome the Ukrainian, Mariya Koryttseva in the final round of the qualifying draws of the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix at the Porsche Arena in Stuttgart, Germany on Monday.
The 50th ranked Russian had to toil for almost three hours before her opponent finally submitted the game at 7-6(3), 5-7, 4-6, to gave her excess to the main draws of the $721,000 WTA (Women’s Tennis Association) tournament.
The 25-year-old Ukrainian had an amazing start against the top seed competitor and bagged the opener in the tie breaker round. The crowd was anticipating an upset victory for Koryttseva but her game went through a shocking slump,
spilling out 11 double faults in the second set alone and letting her opponent bounce back in the game. She kept slopping unforced errors in the final set as well, with the Russian fully capitalized upon them to secure victory and getting an access to the
main draw of the tournament at Stuttgart.
The opening set appeared evenly poised, with the two contestants playing good aggressive tennis. The Ukrainian served better than Chakvetadze in the opener and reeled off 25 of 36 first serve points. Both competitors exchanged
a serve break each and kept ticking the score board until a tie breaker became mandatory at 6-6. Koryttseva proved the better player in the tie breaker and gave away just three points to the Russian before she bagged the first set at 7-6(3).
The crowd at Stuttgart was hopeful that Koryttseva will replicate the similar feats in the following set as well but their hopes ended in dismay as a drastic downturn was witnessed in the Ukrainian’s game. Her first serve percentage
fell to a below par figure of 45 and Koryttseva conceded 11 costly double faults in the second set. Such a huge figure is certainly not permissible in a game of professional tennis and Chakvetadze took full benefit of grave mistakes of her opponent.
Despite of her plenty of unforced errors, Koryttseva still managed to crack three serve breaks to the Russian. Chakvetadze back fired at her with four break points to take the second set at 7-5 and level the contest 1-1. Four more
double faults came from the Ukrainian in the final set of the matchup, assisting Chakvetadze to register a critical serve break in the seventh game. Koryttseva couldn’t break serve this time and had to submit the match to the Russian at 4-6.
Chakvetadze will be facing the “lucky loser” from Slovakia, Zuzana Kucova in the first round of the main draws of the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix.
Tags: