Kristyna Pliskova defeats Emma Laine in final qualifying round – Hansol Korea Open 2011
Seventh seeded Kristyna Pliskova came to blows with Finnish Emma Laine in the final qualifying round of the Hansol Korea Open 2011. The two battled it out on the hard courts of Olympic Tennis Courts in Seoul, South Korea on the
19th of September 2011. After 1 hour and 49 minutes of the match Czech Pliskova won in straight sets of 7-5, 7-6(3) victory.
The Finnish kicked off the serve for the initial set of the match and was comfortably able to place herself on the score board. Pliskova only slipped once and was unable to hold her serve in the second game.
A successful hold of serve later, Laine was leading the score 2-0. Although, it was a slow start Pliskova bounced back in the third game as she held her serve before breaking the Finnish in the fourth to level the score to even
terms.
Gradually continuing from there on; both players unrelentingly won on their respective serves as the score kept balancing out. Pliskova was able to convert a breakpoint opportunity to her advantage at 6-5 to clinch the first set
with a 7-5 win.
Pliskova hit 52 percent of her first serves on target and was able to bag 77 percent of points won in the first serve with six aces and only one double fault to take a lead in the set score.
Finnish Laine pulled up her socks to battle it out in the second set. Opening the second set was Pliskova and the two won on their own serves in the first two games. However, in the following six games the players broke each other
back to back and neither of the players was leading the set as the score had tied at 4-4.
In the ninth and tenth game the two again broke each other back to back to balance the score at 5-5. As the two held serve in the last two games the set was pushed to a tie breaker.
Having picked up steam in the second set, Laine continued to match the Czech in the tiebreaker. Going blow for a blow, both players moved on with neither allowing the other any leverage.
Keeping the score tied for the first six points, Pliskova finally pushed into top gear as she capitalized on a mini-break to take the lead. Reeling off four straight points with two breaks of serves, Pliskova clinched the tiebreaker
7-3 and won the match to secure a place in the main draw of the event.
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