Grandin/ Uhlirova edges past Dushevina/Voskoboeva to clinch title win – Hansol Korea Open 2011
In a match between top two pairs, top seeds South African Natalie Grandin and Czech Vladimira Uhlirova warded off early resistance to register a straight set victory over the second seeds, Vera Dushevina of Russia and Galina Voskoboeva
of Kazakhstan, at the 2011 Hansol Korea Open, a WTA International event held at the Seoul Olympic Park Tennis Center in Seoul, South Korea. They registered a 7-6(5), 6-4 victory over their rivals on Sunday.
The highest ranked team at the Korean clay courts earned a straight set victory over Dushevina and Voskoboeva in one and half hours. 30-year-old Grandin shelved her first WTA title after being 10-0 down in the finals while Uhlirova,
33-year-old, collected her fifth title.
Grandin and Uhlirova confidently marched into the court and got the first blood in the second game to eventually go 3-0 up. However, they failed to keep their lead and lost to love in the seventh game. After this, the South African
Czech duo held their remaining serves and dragged the set to a tie-breaker. They outclassed their opponents in it to bag the opener with a 7-6(5) score line.
Despite spilling more errors and clobbering a lower first serve share, the upper seeds saved four out of five breakpoints came across and capitalised on one out of seven breakpoint opportunities to their advantage.
The winning combination of Grandin and Uhlirova lost their way into the final set as they lost their opening serve and went 3-0 down. However, they corrected their flaws from this point onwards and managed to wipe out next five
games in a row before their rivals could hold on again. The high flying duo then kept their serve for once more to seal the victory by winning six games to four.
They repeated same mistakes i.e. coughing more double faults and manifesting a lower first serve share of 53 percent as opposed to their opponents’ 70 percent. However, the South African Czech tandem warded off three out of four
breakpoints faced and cashed in on both breakpoint opportunities to their advantage.
On their route to final, they trashed the South Korean wild card enterers Ji-hee Choi and Seung-yeon Hong in straight sets in the opening round. Advancing in the tournament, the pair battled past Czech Greek pair of Eva Birnerova
and Eleni Daniilidou in the quarters and then rallied past third seeded Czechs, Iveta Benesova and Klara Zakopalova in three sets to reach the title round.
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