Anna Chakvetadze stuns Varvara Lepchenko to reach main draw – Internazionali BNL d’Italia 2012
Rated at number 337 in the WTA (Women’s Tennis Association) World Rankings, Russian competitor Anna Chakvetadze stunned the world number 59, Varvara Lepchenko of the United States, in the qualifying competition of the Internazionali
BNL d’Italia on Sunday. She went through three taxing sets to settle the final score line at 6-1, 4-6, 6-4, to reach the main draw of the WTA Premier 5 event being held in Rome, Italy.
The 59th ranked hot favourite American laboured extremely hard for two hours and 10 minutes but had to surrender to her 25-year-old age fellow in the third set. She was facing Chakvetadze for the first time in her professional
career and was stunned by the overall onslaught from the Russian tennis starlet. By the time Lepchenko got her eye in the game, the Russian veteran had already bagged the opening set with a breadstick. The American contender then clinched the following set
to remain alive in the competition but stumbled in the decisive set to gift away victory to the Russian opponent.
Chakvetadze delivered 74 per cent of her first serve on target, winning 39 out of 64 points on it. She crafted a total of 21 break opportunities in the match but only seven conversions proved sufficient for her to wrap up victory
in grand fashion. The American contender came up with five out of 13 break points to finish on the losing side in the end, letting the Russian through to the main draw of the tournament.
25-year-old Chakvetadze came out with all her guns blazing in the opening set and nailed two successive break points in the fourth and sixth games to register a breadstick at 6-1. More gruelling tennis was witnessed in the following
set, with Lepchenko reply to Chakvetadze’s two serve break with three cracking break points to take the set at 6-4. The American hot favourite failed to repeat her magic in the decisive set and had to suffer three breaks of serve from her opponent to surrender
the contest at 4-6.
Chakvetadze will face the other American qualifier, Sloane Stephens, in the main draw of the Rome Masters later this week.
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