Ksenia Pervak and Junri Namigata cleared the opening qualifying round of the Sony Ericsson Open
Sixth seed Russian Ksenia Pervak maintained her good form to defeat Zuzana Kucova of Slovakia in the first round qualifiers of the Sony Ericsson Open at Miami, Florida on Monday evening. The 19-year-old Russian won the three-set
contest 6-4, 4-6, 6-2, taking two hours and eighteen minutes of play.
The Russian teenager had a brilliant start to the contest, bagging the opening set in 45 minutes. A downslide in her game in the second set, gave her opponent a vital chance to bag the set but Pervak made a terrific comeback in
the decider to seal her 12th victory of the running WTA (Women’s Tennis Association) season. She avenged her last year’s defeat from Kucova and levelled their head-to-head record to 1-1.
Pervak fully capitalized upon the Slovak’s plenty of unforced errors, including 10 costly double faults, to take her down. Apart from the second set, Kucova executed a number of errant shots, ending long and wide of the court and
giving ample opportunity to her Russian opponent to crack seven serve breaks in the matchup.
The Russian crafted 12 break chances and converted seven of them, while Kucova cashed in five out of nine break opportunities. The Slovak uplifted her game after dropping the opening set 4-6 to Pervak and cracked three serve breaks
to reach 5-4 in the second set. She nabbed the set at 6-4, enforcing a decisive third one.
Pervak had less difficulty in concluding victory in the third set as Kucova coughed six double faults wore her out in the contest. The Russian sealed victory at 6-2, advancing to the next stage of the qualies.
The 19-year-old Russian will take on the 18th seed Junri Namigata of Japan in the second round qualifiers. Namigata outplayed the Canadian wildcard entrant, Stephanie Dubois by 3-6, 7-6(5), 6-3 after a thrilling two
hour and thirty five minutes encounter in the opening round. She dropped the first set and narrowly escaped defeat in the second set tie breaker to remain in the contest. The Japanese bagged the third set to register her second victory in the current WTA season.
Namigata equalled the head-to-head record against Dubois to 1-1, as she was defeated by the Canadian three years ago at Seoul. The 28-year-old Japanese veteran served with just 52 per cent accuracy in the opener and dropped her
serve twice to submit the first set to Dubois.
The second set went to the wire, as both contestants cracked four serve breaks each to drag the set into a decisive tie breaker round. Namigata shifted her gears to clinch four straight points, sealing the second set in the tie
breaker at 7-6(5). Less resistance was posed by Dubois in the decider, as Namigata broke the Canadian’s serve three times in the third set to conclude victory for her at 6-3. The Japanese needs to beat Pervak in the second round qualifiers before she gets
access to the main draw of the Sony Ericsson Open.
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