Eva Birnerova gusts away Karin Knapp in the second round – Tashkent Open 2012
World number 133, Eva Birnerova, defeated the two rank lower Italian professional, Karin Knapp, in the second round of the Tashkent Open on Wednesday. She clinched the win in straight sets 6-2, 6-2 and marched on into the last eight of the tournament.
Both these players were facing each other for the third time in their professional careers. So, they knew the game style but the 2-0 head-to-head at the start of the match proved extremely beneficial for the 28-year-old Czech who made it 3-0 by the end of
the clash.
Birnerova grabbed an early breakpoint in the first game of the match; carried the momentum further to bag a serve hold and mounted a lead of 3-0 courtesy a classy winner down the line that rounded off the second successive breakthrough of the match. Knapp
failed to reply to the onslaught and went down to a trail of 0-4.
Things looked miserable for the Italian professional who dismissed the top seed Romanian in the first round of the tournament. It was expected that she will win this battle provided an easier draw but the Czech starlet rose to the occasion and thumped the
upset queen with a mind-blowing starting lead.
Both players exchanged breakpoints in the two games towards the end of the set. However, the Czech didn’t make mistake in ousting her rival in the eighth game that rounded off the opening set proceedings in her favour.
Nothing was going right for the 25-year-old Italian. She lost the opening serve game of the second set and went down to a trail of 0-2. It was terrible by the end of the fifth game when she was trailing 1-4. The 28-year-old Czech was cruising along with
two breakpoints ahead of her foe and a trade of breakpoints didn’t place any hurdle in her way.
Birnerova served for the set and successfully bagged the game at an expense of just two points that made no difference to the final score line. She will be up against the likes of the fifth seed Romanian star, Alexandra Cadantu, in the quarter-final battle.
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