Eleni Daniilidou defeats wildcard entrant So-Jung Kim in 1st round – Hansol Korea Open 2011
Greek Eleni Daniilidou got the better of wildcard entrant So-Jung Kim in the opening draw of the Hansol Korea Open 2011. Both the players battled it out on the hard courts of Olympic Tennis Courts in Seoul, South Korea on the 20th of
September 2011. After two hours and forty one minutes of play, the higher ranked Daniilidou bounced back from a set down to achieve a 4-6, 6-2, 7-5 victory.
Kim was first to serve for the opening set, but she initiated an appalling start as she was broken in the first game by her opponent but was quick to break back in the second game and the score was tied at 1-1.
During the third game Kim was again broken by her adversary and as Daniilidou held her serve in the fourth game, she was granted a mini break. However, in the following two games the score was squared off at 3-3, as Kim held her
serve in the fifth game and then broke Daniilidou in the sixth. Both the players were playing a blow for a blow and neither of the players wanted the other to capitalize on the window of opportunity. Amidst the last four games Kim broke her adversary twice
to seal a tad difficult victory of 6-4.
Opening the second set was again Kim and it seemed history was repeating itself, when Kim again got off to a bad start and was broken in the very first game by Daniilidou. On the other hand, Daniilidou was successfully able to
place herself on the scoreboard, as she snatched the first game from Kim and then held her serve in the second game to score a 2-0 lead against her adversary. During the fourth and the fifth game the players again broke each other back to back but as Daniilidou
held her serve in the seventh game she was now three breaks up and was leading with a 5-2 score. By holding her serve in the eighth game Daniilidou was able to secure a set.
The two players had bagged a set apiece and opening for the determining set was Kim, finally she was able to hold her serve in the first game and so did Daniilidou. The third and fourth games were lucky for Daniilidou as she was
able to break Kim and then hold her serve to take a mini lead of 3-1.
In the following six games the players rallied hard and long while at the same time the two broke each other numerous times to square the score at 5-5.
However, a lucky break for Daniilidou as she broke her adversary for the last time in the eleventh game and then held her serve to seal her victory of 7-5 and also secure a berth in the second round of the event.
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