Lourdes Dominguez Lino defeats Laura Robson in the opener – Katowice Open 2013
Spanish veteran, Lourdes Dominguez Lino, had to dig deep before turning the tables upon the British tennis prodigy, Laura Robson, in the opening round of BNP Paribas Katowice Open on Monday. The world number 59 battled for two
hours and 30 minutes to rally past the eighth seeded Briton. She settled the final scores at 5-7, 7-6(7), 6-1, to reach the pre-quarter-final rounds of the first edition of this WTA event in Poland.
Lino had already defeated 19-year-old Robson last year in Beijing, China, but the Monday’s encounter was a far tough one. The eighth seed rallied past her to bag the opening set and was on the verge of wrapping up victory in the
second set of the match. However, Lino held her nerve in the intense pressure situation and manoeuvred her way out to victory in the end.
The opening set took with an exchange break points from both sides. Robson quickly broke into 4-1 lead afterwards and consolidated her breakthrough with a serve hold. The 32-year-old Spaniard nailed a break point in the ninth game
and eventually levelled the scores at 5-5. It appeared as if a tie breaker would come into play but the British teenager cashed in a vital break opportunity in the 12th game to seal the first set at 7-5.
After dropping the opener in a dismal manner, Lino struck early in the following set and imposed a 5-1 lead over the Briton. A trade of break points in the sixth and seventh games but Robson moved a step forward to finally level
the scores at 5-5 after a serve break in the 10th game. The set was dragged into a tie break and Lino eventually pocketed it at 7-6(7) to level the match at one-all.
Once getting into her winning impetus, Lino didn’t look back in the decisive set. She dropped her serve in the opening game but then launched her onslaught in the very next game. She went for a six-game rampage, breaking Robson’s
serve three times consecutively and concluded her victory with a breadstick. Lino will face Annika Beck of Germany in the next match of the tournament.
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