Katalin Marosi stuns Tereza Mrdeza to reach the first round – XXV Italiacom Open 2012
Hungarian tennis professional, Katalin Marosi, stunned the Croatian 21-year-old, Tereza Mrdeza, in the final qualifier of the XXV Italiacom Open on Monday. It was an epic thriller that witnessed two tie-breaker rounds; both won by the 32-year-old Hungarian after an intense battle. Final scores were 7-6(5), 3-6, 7-6(5).
The best match of the event so far was witnessed on the eve of Monday when the 194th ranked Croatian went head-to-head with the 458th ranked Hungarian oldie. It was not the first match between the two professional. They had met each other in Prerov Challenger; almost three years ago and Marosi was the one to take the match in three sets. She repeated the heroics again to enhance her head-to-head scores to 2-0.
Mrdeza lost the opening serve game and went down to a trail of 0-2 courtesy an easy hold for her rival. However, she turned the tables on her rival by grabbing a breakpoint back in the fourth game and tied the scores at 2-2.
The Croatian starlet continued to hammer her opponent and clasped a lead of 4-2 courtesy another breakthrough. However, she was stopped in her footing and brought back to level terms by the Hungarian veteran who grabbed a breakthrough in the seventh game.
Both players hung on to their serves and swapped breakpoints in the dying stages of the set to enforce a tie-breaker round. In the end, the veteran proved a bit too clever for the superior ranked Croatian.
The second set witnessed a classic comeback from the 21-year-old Croatian who clinched an early breakthrough to take the lead. She grabbed another breakthrough but was broken back in the following game that kept the lead to two games. However, another breakpoint for the Croatian in the final game of the second set ended the middle phase of the match in her favour.
An exchange of breakpoints in the opening two games were followed up by another trade of breakthroughs that kept the scores together at 3-3. Both players swapped breakpoints for the third time in the set during the seventh and following game that pushed the scores to 4-4. It looked like another cracking battle was on the cards and a double serve hold at both ends proved it to a thriller.
Final set tie-breaker was clasped by the experienced Hungarian veteran who will now face the Russian tennis professional, Valeria Savinykh, in the opening round of the tournament.
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