Kaia Kanepi plonks Anastasia Rodionova in the opening round – e-Boks Open 2012
Fifth seed, Kaia Kanepi, eases past the Australian contender, Anastasia Rodionova, in straight sets at the e-Boks Open 2012 on Tuesday. She nudged up a 6-3, 6-4 victory against the world number 94 to charge into the second round at this WTA (Women’s Tennis
Association) International event held in Copenhagen, Denmark.
The Estonian tennis star showed brilliant skills to outfox the Russian-born Rodionova in their first meeting. After ruling at this indoor hard court event, Kanepi not only took lead in the head-to-head series by 1-0 against the 29-year-old but also secured
a place in the round of 16.
Kanepi stormed into the Farum Arena and after drawing the first blood in the fourth game, she leaped at 4-1. Apart from losing her edge in the seventh game, the Estonian capitalised on another break chance in the very next game and then served to love, ultimately
pulling out the opener with a 6-3 score line.
Ranked 34th in the WTA Premier Rankings, Kanepi kept her rhythm in the follow-up set and held her opening serve to square the scores at 1-1. The Estonian continued smashing flat groundstrokes to reel off successive serves without facing any breakpoint
and got the breakthrough in the seventh game to seal the set with a 6-4 win.
All in all, the 26-year-old spilled five double faults and manipulated a poor first serve share of 44 per cent as opposed to Rodionova’s 75 per cent. However, she spectacularly clicked 21 out of 22 points on it and hammered eight vicious aces to conquer
the match. Kanepi failed to ward off the lone breakpoint she came across but cashed in three out of eight break opportunities to steal the show.
Up next for Kanepi, who is bidding for her third WTA career title here, is the Hungarian star, Timea Babos, who bounced back from a set down to outsmart Kimiko Date-Krumm.
The top seeded Dane, Carolina Wozniacki, also stole the show later that day. She lost her serve thrice but broke Urszula Radwanska’s serve five times to formulate a 7-6(4), 6-2 success. As a result, she not only improved to a 2-0 record in head-to-head series
against the Pole but also extended her unbeaten run at Copenhagen by 11-0.
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