Margarita Gasparyan stuns Aleksandra Krunic in the opening round – Siberia Cup 2011
With a huge support from the local, Margarita Gasparyan from Russia shocked second seeded Serbian, Aleksandra Krunic, with a breadstick at the Siberia Cup 2011, an indoor hard court ITF event which is held in Tyumen, Russia.
The local star formulated a 7-5, 6-1 victory over the 18-year-old Serb to book a second round spot on Monday.
A local wild card entrant, Gasparyan, upset the second seed, ranked 223rd in the Sony Ericsson WTA Premier Rankings, with a breadstick in just under an hour. She surprised everyone and took one step
closer to claim her maiden career title.
World number 681, Gasparyan, levelled the scores with the Serb at 5-5 after a series of serve breaks. She converted another break opportunity to her advantage afterwards and then held her serve in the last game to seal the
opener with a 7-5 success. The Russian cashed in three out of five break chances and dusted away two out of four breakpoints she came across.
The 17-year-old Russian raised the bar of her game in the second set as she defended all breakpoints faced. Gasparyan stroke out the opening three games consecutively before Krunic could hold on. She then maintained consistency
in her game and pocketed the last three games as well, earning a breadstick. The youngster capitalised on two out of three break chances and brushed off all breakpoints she faced.
Next challenge for the wild card enterer is the Belarusian Polina Pekhova who dumped a local star, Angelina Gabueva in straight sets to reach this spot. Pekhova took one and half hour to ease past the Russian on their first
face-to-face.
Ukrainian Lyudmyla Kichenok will also feature in the second round of the Siberian Cup. She crippled 17-year-old Ekaterina Semenova with a breadstick in almost 45 minutes on their first duel with each other.
The 19-year-old Ukrainian made a shaky entry and gifted away her serve in the opening game. Regardless of a pessimist crowd, she unleashed her true form and went on a six games rampage, pocketing a breadstick in just twenty
minutes.
The high spirited teenager kept momentum rolling into the second set and wiped out opening three games in a row. She then held her remaining serves and clinched the set at 6-3.
She will square off against her countrywoman, seventh seed Valentyna Ivakhnenko who bounced over the Russian Marina Shamayko in a three set thriller to reach this spot. The seeded Kichenok needs to lift her game in order
to face a seeded player and to advance in this tournament.
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