Donna Vekic upsets Magdalena Rybarikova in the opening round – Tashkent Open 2012
Donna Vekic, 16-year-old Croatian qualifier, dumped the fourth seed Slovak star, Magdalena Rybarikova, in the opening round of the Tashkent Open on the eve of Tuesday. The 183rd ranked Croatian qualifier sneaked the
first set in a tie-breaker 7-6(3) and clinched the second half with a straight forward 6-3 score line. The 54th ranked Slovak was dispatched in an hour and 55 minutes.
In a post-match interview, Vekic stated, “It's my first Top 100 win and it really feels great and I'm very happy. When I was 5-3 up with three set points I was very nervous, but then I played confidently in the tie-break and the
rest of the match."
Vekic commenced the match and lost just one point on her serve. The fourth seed Slovak did the same and tied the scores at 1-1. In the second serve game, the 16-year-old Croatian lost two points before registering a hold whereas
her opponent failed to bag the game; dropping a breakpoint in just the fourth game.
The 23-year-old Slovak was frustrated by the lack of command at the proceedings. She likes to dominate the match and seeing a 16-year-old leading the scores enhanced her misery. However, a small cameo of three back-to-back breakpoints
that were shared in the ratio of 2:1 to Rybarikova helped her in levelling the scores at 5-5.
Both players were under the cosh in the following serve game but did well to hang on and enforce the tie-breaker into play. With immense experience under her belt, it was expected that the Slovak star will thump her opponent but
she failed to win a single point from the first five rallies. The teenager grabbed the triumph with ease and marched ahead with a set lead.
Rybarikova showed no fight at all in the second set. She contested a game of almost 10 minutes and still failed to hold serve upfront. Vekic did well to make it 2-0 at the start. Furthermore, the lead was extended to 3-0 with the
help of another breakthrough. The Croatian was all pumped up to register her first Top-100 victory of the career.
A little turnaround was witnessed in the proceedings during the sixth game when the Slovak fourth seed broke serve and diminished the trail to 2-4. However, a serve hold at each ends of the court pushed the scores to 5-3 in favour
of the Croatian qualifier who grabbed the third breakpoint in the ninth game to round off the proceedings.
Donna Vekic plays Lara Arruabarrena-Vecino in round two.
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