Johanna Larsson fails to qualify for the main round – Rogers Cup 2012
World number 93, Johanna Larsson, dumped the 151st ranked Russian, Alla Kudryavtseva, in the second qualifier of the Rogers Cup on the eve of Monday. She bounced back a set down to reach the final qualifier 4-6, 6-3,
7-5.
The opening set witnessed a swap of breakpoints upfront before the 24-year-old Russian broke serve to take a lead of 3-1. She continued to dominate the proceedings and made it difficult for the Swede who started the match as the
favourite. It looked like the crowd will have an upset to witness at the hard courts of Montreal, especially after the end of the opening set.
However, the turnaround in the proceedings occurred in the eighth game of the second set when the 23-year-old Swede broke her opponent’s serve to take a lead. It was that moment when she regained her impetus and earned another
breakthrough to end the second set in quick succession. A terrible ending to the promising second set witnessed 151st ranked Russian failing to win the match in straight sets.
The stage was set for the final set. Kudryavtseva saw her opponent taking a lead in the third game when she faltered on her serve to commit the second double-fault of the match. However, she recovered well in the sixth game to
fight back and improve her odds of winning the contest.
Both players hung on to their serves in their serves in the following four games before the Swede broke serve for the second time in the set to take a lead of 6-5. It was a terrible ending for yet another promising start for the
Russian who looked set to register an upset and more importantly march on into the final qualifier of the tournament.
Later in the day, Larsson locked horns with the Hungarian teen, Timea Babos, and sadly lost the match that rocked her out of the competition. The singles event draw is yet to be updated so qualifiers still don’t know about their
next opponents that will be in their way in the main round of the contest. It will be interesting to see who Babos gets in the first round.
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