Kurumi Nara ousts Karin Knapp in the second qualifying round – Australian Open 2012
Japanese world number 145, Kurumi Nara, defeated the 24-years-old Italian contestant, Karin Knapp, in the second qualifying round of the Australian Open tournament on Friday. Both young athletes have never battled against one another before this encounter;
it was Nara that had the first triumph over her competitor in straight sets 6-4, 6-4. She moves into the next round of the tournament putting an end to the Italian’s promising campaign for the first Grand Slam tournament of the year, the Australian Open.
The match kicked-off in sloppy fashion, as both players look to explore the shortcomings of one another. The contestants held their opening two serves before the Japanese found the loophole in her rival’s sporting style and broke her serve to take
the lead. She further enhanced her position in the match by holding on to her serve and pushing the scores to 3-1 in her favour.
Knapp continued to fight back but her efforts were slightly off the mark as the scores further pushed on to 4-2 in the favour of the superior ranked Japanese contestant. The Italian tennis ace tried a bit too hard to explore the critical breakpoint
but her onslaught backfired at her, as she lost another game on her serve giving an open route to her opponent to clear of the first set proceedings with a massive lead.
The Japanese contender made no mistake in pounding on her opponent and capitalized on the massive lead by hanging on to her serve and claiming the first set. It was getting increasingly difficult for the 24-years-old Italian upcoming star to make an
impact. Second set took off in similar fashion as the first one did and both players hung on to their respective serves in the opening two games.
A replicated display from the first set by the Japanese tennis ace earned her the crucial breakthrough, as she broke her opponent’s serve and took the lead. Her stunning display of all-round shot making was awarded with another breakpoint in the fifth
game that was good enough to dismantle the confidence of her opponent and shatter her dreams of qualifying to the main draw of the Australian Open.
Tags: