Irina-Camelia Begu ends the supreme run of Donna Vekic and claims the title – Tashkent Open 2012
Unfortunately, the 16-year-old Croatian, Donna Vekic, couldn’t accomplish the record of becoming the youngest woman player to win a Women Tennis Association at Tashkent Open grand finale. She was rocked hard by another surprising
character of the tournament, the 87th ranked Romanian, Irina Camelia-Begu, in straight sets 6-4, 6-4.
It was a classic encounter between the two underdogs of the tournament that reached the final after register multiple upsets. Both players fought for an hour and 20 minutes before the Croatian teenager bowed down to the 22-year-old
Romanian.
Vekic begin the match with a serve hold and so did her rival. It was a nervy start from both players who didn’t look on the top of their game but as the games passed by both players began to serve better. Only one point was won
by each player on their opponent’s serve every time except once when Begu managed to win all four on the trot. Scores were pushed to 3-3 at that stage.
The most critical moment of the match arrived when the 16-year-old qualifier failed to fire in the first serves and had to compromise on the pace of the second serves that led to her downfall. She couldn’t hold serve and went down
3-4 in the set. Begu made no mistake in protecting the breakthrough; registered a serve hold to make it 5-3 in her favour.
Vekic stayed focused; bagged all points on her serve but couldn’t win a single point in the following return game that ended the first set in favour of the Romanian. It was a disappointing end to such an emphatic beginning for
the Croatian. However, there was still a chance to make a comeback and wipe off the first set loss.
The second unfortunate even for the Croatian came in the first game of the second set when she failed to hold serve. Both players pushed the scores in a see-saw fashion; making it 3-4 in favour of Begu. A swap of breakpoints kept
the lead of the Romanian intact and she survived a scare in the final game to clinch the title.
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