Ekaterina Ivanova stuns Lesia Tsurenko in final qualies – Kremlin Cup 2011
World number 175 Ekaterina Ivanova overshadowed the world number 119 Lesia Tsurenko by surviving a mid match crisis in the final qualifying round of the Kremlin Cup 2011. The challengers took to the indoor hard courts of the Olympic
Stadium, Moscow and after one hour and forty eight minutes the lower ranked Russian, Ivanova scored 6-0, 3-6, 6-2 against the higher ranked Ukrainian Tsurenko on Monday the 17th of October 2011.
Ivanova opted to serve first as she had just won the service toss to initiate the opening round and she skilfully managed to hold her serve and open the scoreboard at 1-0. She then capitalized on a breakpoint and placed herself
at a lead of 2-0.
She then repeated the feat and further increased her lead to 4-0 in the fourth game with a hold of serve and a break. As she powered through the remaining set, during the last two games, Ivanova not only held her serve but also
capitalized from the third breakpoint and saw a bagel set victory of the opening set.
The second set of the match was initiated by Ivanova and both the players successfully held serves to place themselves on the scoreboard at 1-1. Ivanova endorsed a breakpoint to Tsurenko, who not only capitalized on the breakpoint
but also handled her serve to take a lead of 3-1.
Tsurenko repeated the feat and further increased the lead to 5-1. She was now only a game away and during the last three games Ivanova held serve and broke Tsurenko to reduce the deficit to 3-5. However, in the ninth game Tsurenko
broke back and clogged the second set with a 6-3 victory.
Since the two had bagged a set each, the last set of the match would determine the winner and initiating the determining set was Tsurenko, who skilfully held her serve and opened the scoreboard at 1-0. Following in her footsteps
was Ivanova, who too held her serve and placed herself right beside Tsurenko on the scoreboard at 1-1. In the third game the Ukrainian double faulted on her serve and endorsed a game to her adversary. Ivanova not only took advantage of the break but also
held serve to take a lead of 3-1 by the end of the fourth game.
The Russian repeated the feat and further increased her lead to 5-1 by the end of the sixth game. During the last two games, both the players managed to win a game on their respective serves and in doing so; the lower ranked Russian
sealed her victory of the set and the match.
Ivanova was able to secure a place in the main draw of the event where she will be facing fifth seeded Serbian Jelena Jankovic.
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