Arantxa Rus rallies past Conny Perrin into final eight – Al Habtoor Tennis Challenge 2011
Sixth seed Arantxa Rus of Netherlands battled past Swiss wild card enterer Conny Perrin in troublesome three sets at the Al Habtoor Tennis Challenge 2011, a women’s tennis tournament on the ITF Women’s Circuit and taking place
in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. She registered a 6-7, 7-5, 6-4 victory over the Swiss starlet to reach the last eight on Wednesday.
World number 82 Rus put up a firm display of tennis to overpower the wild card entrant, ranked 191 spots below her in the Sony Ericsson WTA Premier Rankings, on their first meeting. After almost two and half hour long marathon,
the Dutchwoman not only inched towards her maiden year-to-date title but also booked a quarter-final place here.
Both 20-year-old tennis rising stars displayed exceptional skills in the opening set. One with her marvellous backhand slices and other with exquisite forehands, held their respective serves. The set went to a tie-breaker where
the Swiss outmuscled Russ and bagged the opener with a 7-6 score line.
The frustrated seed found the $75,000 track in the second set. She brushed off all breakpoints faced and converted one breakpoint chance to her advantage in the end, sealing the equaliser by winning seven games to five.
Rus kept momentum floating in the final set. She again plucked in entire serves through her magnificent skills. After converting one out of many breakpoint opportunities to her advantage, the Dutch clinched the decider with a 6-4
win.
Overall, Rus clobbered a lower first serve share but covered it up by formulating a better return point winning percentage.
Rus snapped out from a four match losing streak after dumping Japanese Erika Sema in straight sets in her opening round match. She had a monotonous season so far as she made title round appearances thrice. The Dutchwoman made final
showdowns at Stockholm, Saint-Gaudens and Cuneo ITF Women’s Circuit events and reached the second round at the Australian Open through qualifiers.
The seeded Dutch will next confront the winner of the match between Russian Nina Bratchikova and Uzbek Akgul Amanmuradova. Rus needs to practice hard and improve her defensive skills in order to reach far in this event.
Top seeded Romanian Simona Halep will be joining Rus in the last eight. She eased past Thai Tamarine Tanasugarn in straight sets on their second meeting to set-up this clash.
Halep will next face the winner of the match between eighth seeded Romanian Alexandra Cadantu and Belarusian Olga Govortsova.
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