Ekaterina Bychkova rolls past Polina Pekhova into the main round – Tashkent Open 2012
World number 198, Ekaterina Bychkova, defeated the 313th ranked Belarusian, Polina Pekhova, in the final qualifying round of the Tashkent Open. She won the match in three sets 6-4, 3-6, 6-2 and booked a spot in the main
round of the tournament.
It was the second head-to-head battle between the two athletes and the previous one was also won the 27-year-old Russian so the pressure was clearly on the 20-year-old Belarusian to step up and prove her worth. However, she wasn’t
good enough to beat the superior ranked competitor in three sets and bowed down after a gruelling fight of an hour and 42 minutes.
Pekhova commenced the match with a serve hold to love and won the first point in the following game as well to stamp her authority. However, the Russian fought back to hold her serve and tie the scores at 1-1. A swap of breakpoints
kept the scores together but another breakthrough for the Russian earned her lead which was successfully protected with a commanding serve hold.
Another trade of breakthroughs pushed the scores to 5-3 in favour of the Russian. A serve hold from the Belarusian kept her in the set but she failed to break serve in the 10th game that rounded off the first set proceedings
in favour of the experienced Russian professional.
The second set witnessed a tight battle throughout. Pekhova earned the critical breakpoint in the sixth game and took a lead that was retained until the end of the set. Everything went smooth at both ends except the only breakthrough
of the set that proved pivotal in keeping the hopes of the 20-year-old Belarusian alive.
Bychkova held her serve in the first game of the final and set and won a breakpoint to post a lead of 2-0. She repeated the similar performance in the following two games and thumped her opponent to trail of 0-4. Pekhova did well
to revive one breakthrough back but couldn’t grab the second breakpoint that was crucial to complete the comeback.
Bychkova broke serve in the eighth game and entered the main round where she plays against the fifth seed Romanian, Alexandra Cadantu.
Tags: