Maria Kirilenko disposes Akgul Amanmuradova to clear round one – PTT Pattaya Open 2013
World number 15, Maria Kirilenko, cleared the first stage of the PTT Pattaya Open by dispatching the 28-year-old Uzbek, Akgul Amanmuradova, on the eve of Tuesday. She disposed the 148th ranked qualifier in straight sets
6-3, 7-5 at the hard courts of Pattaya City.
It was a traditional start to the encounter with both players capitalizing on their serves at the beginning. The ironic situation was witnessed in the fourth game when the qualifier was in control of the proceedings and almost
sneaked a breakpoint but the second seed Russian struck an unbelievable return that left the Uzbek, perplexed.
It was a marvellous save from the 26-year-old Russian who regrouped and kept the scores level by the end of the sixth game. The Uzbek was starting to feel the heat as the scoreboard was pushing towards the ending phase of the opening.
The pressure finally broke down the defence of Amanmuradova who stumbled apart in the seventh game of the contest; gifting a breakthrough to her rival and successfully protected it with a serve hold to push the scores at 5-3.
Amanmuradova had to hold serve to keep the set alive but lost two off the first three points that put her under the woods. She tried to fight back but always had to rally from behind her opponent that forced her to drop yet another
breakpoint and allotted the first set triumph to the second seed Russian who thoroughly deserved the win.
The second set started with a quick fire for the Russian who clasped an early breakthrough to take a lead of 2-0 but failed to capitalize on the good start and handed over the break of serve to her rival. The sew-saw battle continued
until the end of the 10th game and it looked like that both players will decide the set in a tie-breaker battle but the Russian superstar brought her experience into the play and clinched a timely breakthrough that left no chance for her rival to
comeback.
Luksika Kumkhum defeated Casey Dellacqua later in the day and she will lock horns against Maria Kirilenko in the second round of the event.
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