Jamie Hampton battles past Olga Puchkova in the second qualifying round – Australian Open 2012
World number 143, Jamie Hampton from the United States, bounced back from being a set down to plonk the Russian, Olga Puchkova, in the second qualifying round of the Australian Open. Both players locked horns in Melbourne on Friday
and Hampton nailed her opponent with a score of 6-7(5), 6-3, 6-0. It was interesting to see the Russian winning the first set because she was thought to be the weakest contender in the qualifiers.
It was the third time they were contesting against each another. The American had defeated the Puchkova in straight sets twice in 2010 during Lutz and Jackson tournament. It was a brilliant opportunity for the Russian to have a
go against Hampton and get off the mark in style. She was in dismal form and her stamina was not good enough to meet the strong build up of her opponent.
After the first successful serve game for the American, both players traded serve breaks in the next two games. Puchkova held her serve in the fourth game to level the scores at 2-2. Two more break points were traded in the fifth
and sixth game of the first set that pushed the scores to 3-3. Both players became cautious afterwards and hung on to their serves to enforce a tie-breaker round.
Close battle in the tie-breaker ended up with a triumph for the inferior ranked Russian. It was such a stunning result for everyone and upset was on the cards at that stage of the game. Second set started with a successful break
for Hampton that made it interesting for the viewers. Three back-to-back breaks were exchanged by both players as the scores pushed to 4-1 in favour of the American. Last two games of the second set also ended up with serve breaks for both contenders and that
summed up the set win for the American.
Puchkova is famous for her low stamina and three setters are not her type. The score showed the same as she was completely owned in the last set; couldn’t win the single game. Such an ordinary performance ensured the win for the
American that marched into the next round in style.
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