Irina Khromacheva loses to Grace Min in Girls’ Singles 1st round – US Open 2011
Opening the main draw of the event was Russian Irina Khromacheva against American Grace Min at the US Open juniors’ tournament. Seeded at number 2 Irina clashed for the first time on show court 10 of the USTA Billie Jean King National
Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows. Fortunately for the spectators Grace Min won on home soil with a straight set victory of 7-6(5) and 6-4.
Irina was born on the 12th of May, 1995, and started playing tennis at the age four. She has had a very decorative career; a winner at the French Open in the junior girls singles event, went on to becoming a runner up
at the Junior event in the girls singles during Wimbledon Championships. Winning two ITF titles this year, she was the stronger challenger out of the two.
On the contrary, Grace Min has not had such a great year and out of the twenty nine matches played, she won only 12 and lost the remaining 9.
Opening the first set was Grace and as she served for the first game, she was broken by the Russian but not letting the number 2 seeder take a lead she broke back in the second game to even the score at 1-1. In the next five games
the two kept on breaking each other to even out the score at 3-3. From the seventh to the eleventh game both the players on alternate serves but in the twelfth game Irina held her serve to push the set to a tie breaker. Both the players in their best form
and were continuously holding there serve but finally Grace was first to reach the finish line by bagging 7 points, leaving her opponent at 5.
Even though Irina had two extra winners and aces than Grace, she went on to finishing the marathon set first and eventually bagged the set in 58 minutes.
The second set was a much easier victory and this time it was Irina was serving first for the second set. During the first game Irina was broken and by holding her serve grace took the lead 2-0. By the third game Irina was able
to hold her serve but on the alternate serve and in the next two games they both held their serves but in the sixth game Grace was broken and Irina managed to level the score at 3-3. While holding their serves during the seventh and the eighth game, the two
balanced the score at 4-4. The match could’ve gone either way but fortunately for Grace, she was able to break Irina in the ninth game and by holding her serve in the tenth she bagged the set with a 6-4 victory.
The crowd stood up to appreciate Grace’s performance as she was able to overpower a number two seeded player and was able to secure a berth in the second round where she will be facing Israeli qualifier Valeria Patiuk.
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