Eleni Daniilidou ousts Alla Kudryavtseva to secure a spot in round two – Family Circle Cup 2012
Greece’s Eleni Daniilidou tumbled over the Russian starlet, Alla Kudryavtseva, in straight sets at the Family Circle Cup 2012 on Monday. She clobbered a 6-3, 6-4 score line against the world number 116 in the opening round at this WTA (Women’s Tennis Association)
Premier event held in Charleston, South Carolina.
The in-form Greek showed superb abilities to outrun Kudryavtseva in straight sets at the Family Circle Tennis Center in their second meeting. The challengers previously met each other at the Moscow WTA Premier event eight years ago and after earning this
success, Daniilidou extended her lead in the head-to-head series by 2-0 against the 24-year-old.
Daniilidou assertively stepped on the green clay courts and held her opening serve through powerful backhands. She lost her serve once but cashed in both break chances to seal the opener with a 6-3 victory. She formulated a better first serve share of 75
per cent as compared to the Russian’s 68 per cent but spectacularly availed 15 out of 21 points on it.
Ranked 67th in the WTA Premier Rankings, Daniilidou carried her winning ways in the following set. She warded off one out of two breakpoints she came across but capitalised on two out of three break chances to pull out the set by winning six games
to four. She again produced an amazing first serve share and clicked 15 out of 23 points on it.
The Greek is bidding for her sixth WTA career title here. She will square off against the eighth seed, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, who received a first round bye after being the top eight player of the event.
The 14th seed, Polona Hercog of Slovenia, will join Daniilidou in the second round. She eased past the Japanese veteran, Kimiko Date-Krumm, in straight sets in almost one and half hour. Hercog manifested a slightly lower first serve share of 73
per cent as opposed to the Japanese’s 76 per cent and amazingly clinched 30 out of 41 points on it. She lost her serve once but cashed in three out of nine break chances to register a 6-4, 6-3 score line in their second outing.
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