Jana Cepelova slashes past Alexandra Artamonova into final four – OrtoLaakarit Open 2011
Sixth seeded Slovak Jana Cepelova eases through Russian qualifier Alexandra Artamonova in straight sets at the OrtoLaakarit Open 2011, a hard court tournament which is a part of the ITF Women’s Circuit taking place in Helsinki,
Finland. She jolted down a 6-4, 6-4 victory over the 19-year-old Russian to advance into the semi-finals on Friday.
The seeded Slovak put up a solid display of tennis to wipe out Artamonova, ranked 440th in the Sony Ericsson WTA Premier rankings, in straight sets. After an hour and twelve minutes long hurdle, Cepelova not only secured
a last four spot but also inched towards her third year-to-date ITF title.
The Slovak made a shaky entry on the Finn courts and gifted away her opening serve to subsequently go 2-0 down. However, she maintained consistency in her reaming serves and recovered in the fourth game. In addition to this, Cepelova
broke the Russian’s serve again in the last game to clinch the opener with a 6-4 win.
She manipulated a lower first serve share of 64 percent as compared to Artamonova’s 72 percent but registered a spectacular 88 percent win on it. The Slovak failed to block the only breakpoint faced but cashed in both breakpoint
opportunities to her advantage.
World number 220 Cepelova stormed into the second set and stroke out opening three games consecutively. Later, she plucked remaining serves through angles shots from her box of tricks until the ninth game when the Slovak lost her
edge. However, Cepelova quickly counterattacked by breaking the Russian’s serve again in the last game and sealed the set with a similar 6-4 score line again.
She again clobbered a lower first serve share of 56 percent in contrast with Artamonova’s 65 percent. Adding further to her misery, the Slovak coughed more errors and five double faults. However, Cepelova covered it up by dusting
away four out of five breakpoints came across and capitalising on two out of three breakpoint chances to her advantage.
Next up for the seed is the top seed Estonia’s Kaia Kanepi who also outfoxed a Russian qualifier, Daria Gavrilova, to set-up this clash.
A former world number sixteen, Kanepi saved five out of eight breakpoints faced and converted six out of ten breakpoint opportunities to her advantage, eventually sealing the deal with a 6-0, 7-6(2) success in one hour and twenty-three
minutes. She also fired eight massive aces, produced a better first serve share of 62 percent as opposed to the Russian’s 58 percent and registered an impressive 70 percent win on it.
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