Daniela Hantuchova scampers past Vania King into the semis – Pattaya Open 2012
Defending champion, Daniela Hantuchova, is just two steps away from retaining the PTT Pattaya Open title. On Friday, she ousted the eighth seed American, Vania King, in straight sets 7-6(7), 6-4. She took an hour and 55 minutes
to plonk her opponent and book a berth in the semi-finals of the tournament.
Psychological pressure was definitely on the American having lost previous six encounters and failing to register a single victory against the Slovak throughout her professional career. She started off well but couldn’t carry the
momentum to pull up an upset of the tournament.
Hantuchova was enjoying her time at the court; winning 8 of her previous ten matches. She is the highest seeded player who is still in the hunt for the title. The top two seeds were already dismissed in the earlier stages, leaving
Hantuchova as the hot-favourite contestant to retain her title at Pattaya City in Thailand.
A mammoth crowd was present at the sporting arena. They all came to witness one of the most beautiful tennis stars, Hantuchova, in action. Early on in the contest, the third seed Slovak was under the cosh, losing first serve game
with minimal effort. Her serve was broken in the fifth game as well that exerted a lot of pressure on her. She was trailing by 1-4 at that stage.
King looked aggressive with her game style and looked threatening. Unfortunately for her, the Slovak earned a cheeky point that set the tone for a classic comeback. Hantuchova broke serve in the sixth game and carried the momentum
to win another breakpoint that levelled the scores at 4-4. Both players traded breakpoints that kept the scores together at 5-5.
A tie-breaker round was enforced to decide the set; neck-to-neck battle continued between the two contestants before the third seed Slovak finally got a mini-break to turn the tables upon her opponent. She bagged the first set
and King missed it by a hair.
Heartbroken at the close loss of the first set, King started the second set in despair; lost the opening serve game and trailed two games to nil at the start. She fought back and won the next two games including a vital breakpoint
in the fourth game to level the scores at 2-2. Unluckily, she was pushed back into her shell with a successful breakthrough from the Slovak in the fifth game that reinstated her lead.
No more breakpoints came into play and Hantuchova progressed to the semi-finals. She plays Su-Wei Hsieh for spot in the title match.
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