Daniela Hantuchova strains past Lesia Tsurenko in the second round – Australian Open 2012
Former world number five, Slovakia’s Daniela Hantuchova, recovered from a one-set deficit to overwhelm the unseeded Ukrainian competitor, Lesia Tsurenko, in the second round battle of the Australian Open on Wednesday. The enthralling
three-setter took two hours and 29 minutes of play before the world number 21 sealed victory at 4-6, 6-4, 6-3, to earn a place in the third round of the Grand Slam Down Under.
111th ranked Ukrainian stunned everyone with his amazing game play in the opening set and took the former top-tenner by surprise. She claimed the first set in 49 minutes and was threatening an upset against the 20th seed
Slovak. Hantuchova made a timely recovery in the following set to force her way right back in business. She built up momentum from the second set win and then carried on with her traits to claim victory in the final set, disposing the promising 22-year-old
Ukrainian in a convincing manner.
Hantuchova bettered her opponent in most segments of the game, apart from the error-ridden opening set. The first set was off to a fiery start, with both women labouring hard to get the early advantage in the contest. Six consecutive
serve breaks were witnessed by the crowd present at the Margaret Court Arena, propelling the scores to 4-4. Hantuchova strained extremely hard in the opener but some critical unforced-errors and a couple of missed opportunities proved very costly for the 20th seed.
Tsurenko nailed her fourth and the most crucial break point in the ninth game to get 5-4 up and then served out of the set at 6-4.
The following set took off in the similar fashion as the first one did, with both contestants trading six break points in the opening games. Hantuchova further broke her opponent in the eighth and 10th game to eventually
bag the hard-fought set at 6-4. It was a treat to watch for the local crowd, which witnessed one of the finest displays of sheer resilience and intense tennis action.
The 20th seed dropped serve right up in the final set but recovered with great mastery to register serve breaks in the second and fourth game. She went on to win the matchup at 6-3, marching into the third round of the
Australian Open in style.
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