Maria Kirilenko crashes out to Francesca Schiavone in the opening clash – UNICEF Open 2012
Russian fifth seed, Maria Kirilenko, lost the opening round thriller from the 26th ranked Italian, Francesca Schiavone, in the UNICEF Open at s-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands. She lost the opening set 4-6; won the second
set 6-3 but was powered down in the final battle 7-5.
She was the third seed of the tournament to lose on the single day. Previously, the top seed Aussie, Samantha Stosur and the second seed Italian, Sara Errani, also lost their opening clashes to register a cursed day for seeded
players on the eve of Monday.
Kirilenko started poorly; lost the opening serve game and went down 2-0. She was further pushed down to a trail of 2-5 courtesy to another breakthrough for the former French Open Champion. However, she fought back immediately to
decrease the trail to 3-5 and held her serve to make it 4-5. Despite strong resistance in the final game, the Russian starlet failed to keep the set alive and witnessed a trail of one down.
The reply from the Russia beauty queen was epic. She broke serve in the opening game of the second set and posted a 2-0 lead upfront. She didn’t face any difficulty in holding on to her serve in the remaining phase of the set until
the 10th game. The Italian superstar broke serve in a ‘do or die’ game to keep the set alive and moreover tied the scores at 5-5. However, the strong belief of the Russian earned her another breakthrough in the 12th game that sealed a
second set triumph for her.
Stage was set for another enthralling battle and both players were ready to take on each other. The momentum helped the Russian to break serve in the opening game of the final set. She consolidated her position with a serve hold
and powered down her opponent with an eye-startling display of forehand and backhand returns. However, the Italian once again kept the set alive in the 10th game of the match and levelled the scores at 5-5.
It was the most crucial breakthrough of the match that also hurt the Russian fifth seed. She tried extremely hard to break serve in the following game; had five different opportunities to do it but failed to convert any of them
in her favour. The desperation enhanced the frustration for the 19th ranked Russian and she was broken to love in the following game forcing her out of the tournament.
Francesca Schiavone will play her next match against Irina-Camelia Begu of Romania.
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