Anna Tatishvili battles past Sesil Karatantcheva into the second round – Bell Challenge 2012
Ranked 52nd in the world, Anna Tatishvili of Georgia came back after badly losing the second set to beat the world number 90 from Kazakhstan, Sesil Karatantcheva, 7-5, 1-6, 6-1 in the opening round of the Bell Challenge
in Quebec City, Canada on Tuesday. The Georgian took almost two hours to undo her opponent in a closely contest match.
Tatishvili made the worst possible start, as she could not win even a single point on her first serve and also lost the following game to trail 0-2. The Georgian hit back in the eighth to equalise the score at 4-4. The following
three games went with serve, taking the score to 6-5 in favour of Tatishvili. Serving to stay in the set at that moment, Karatantcheva was unable to hold it and went down 5-7.
The Georgian neither hit an ace nor committed any double fault in the opener, maintaining a first serve percentage at 65 and grabbing 13 of the 22 points on them. The 5ft 7in tall was near error free on the second deliveries, as
she lost just three of the 12 of them. The right-hander saved one of the two break points she faced and converted two of the eight she received.
After losing a close first set, Karatantcheva improved her game and took it to a new level in the second one. The Astana resident grabbed opening four games to race to a 4-0 lead, allowing her opponent to win only one game till
the end and closing the second set 6-1.
Karatantcheva hit one ace and 83 percent of the first serves, converting 11 of the 15 of them into points. The Kazakh contender did brilliantly well on the second returns, securing eight of the 10 points on them.
Tatishvili and Karatantcheva held their opening serves in the decider to even out the proceedings at 1-1. It was all Tatishvili show later on, as she captured five straight games to close it 6-1.
Just like the first set, the Georgian participant did not hit any ace or committed a double fault in the decider. The interesting fact of this contest was that each set was won by the player, who performed better on the second
returns. This time, Tatishvili captured five of the six points on them.
The Georgian player will lock horns with the seventh seed, Petra Martic of Croatia, in the second round.
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