Anna Chakvetadze upsets Lesya Tsurenko to reach round two – Tashkent Open 2012
World number 261, Anna Chakvetadze, smothered away the 107th ranked Ukrainian, Lesya Tsurenko, in the first round of the Tashkent Open on Tuesday. She clobbered the win in straight sets 6-4, 6-3 and became the first
qualifier to survive the opening set match at the hard courts of Uzbekistan.
It was not the first time in the year that the former world number five managed to upset the 23-year-old Ukrainian. Earlier, they squared off against one another in the final qualifier of the e-Boks Sony Ericsson in Copenhagen
and the 25-year-old Russian won that match in three sets; bouncing back a set down.
Both players started off with a serve hold but the initiative was taken early by the Russian star who managed to break serve in the fourth game of the match and consolidated it with a serve hold to push the scores at 4-1.
Tsurenko kept her calm and held her serve to do the basics right. After that, she went on to slam her rival down and won the breakpoint back but just to see herself going down again in the following game. Another trade of breakpoints
ended the set in favour of the Russian qualifier who looks set to make a comeback in the Top-100 players by the end of the season.
The second set witnessed a double exchange of breakpoints at the start. Despite the entire hullabaloo, there was no damage done to either party. The 25-year-old Russian was the first to hold her serve in the fifth game and sneaked
the third breakpoint on the trot to take a lead of two games. She held her serve to make sure that the pivotal lead was not squandered.
Tsurenko was under the cosh but did well to hang on to her serve and keep the match alive. However, she was unable to break serve back and sustain her hopes of denying an upset at the hands of the talented Russian gorgeous professional.
Anna Chakvetadze is scheduled to lock horns against the eighth seed Kazakh star, Galina Voskoboeva, in the second round contest of the tournament.
Tags: