Monica Niculescu bows out to Bojana Jovanovski to reach the quarter-finals – e-Boks Open 2012
A surprising outcome was witnessed in the second round of the e-Boks Open, with the fourth seed Romanian contender, Monica Niculescu, falling out at the hands of the unseeded Serbian, Bojana Jovanovski, on Thursday. The world number
29 was stunned after a gruelling battle with the 106th ranked Jovanovski in three sets, 7-6(6), 4-6, 1-6, to end her voyage at the WTA (Women’s Tennis Association) event in Copenhagen, Denmark.
The Romanian stepped on the indoor hard courts as the hot favourite for winning but the outcomes of the contest went against her favour. She faced some serious resistance from the 20-year-old Serb in the opening set but manoeuvred
her way to win the first set tie-breaker. Jovanovski kept hitting at the fourth seed opponent in the following set and finally cracked her to bring her down on even terms. With the set scores levelled at 1-1, the decider was anticipated to be a thriller but
it proved to be an all-Serbian show. Jovanovski exhibited an amazing display of sheer dominance and pin-point hitting to force Niculescu out of the competition with a breadstick.
"I'm so tired now. It was a very tough match, but I´m so happy to have won," said Jovanovski after registering her 11th victory in the running WTA season. "Niculescu is a tough opponent, but I'm very happy with the way
I played in reaching the quarterfinals."
The two talented competitors last met at the 2011 Miami Masters and Niculescu registered a 6-1, 7-6(2), win over the Serbian. It was Jovanovski who had her revenge this time round and levelled the head-to-head scores at 1-1.
Jovanovski delivered 63 per cent of her serve on target and bagged 43 out of 57 first serve points en route to victory. The Serbian broke Niculescu six out of 10 times in the match, whereas the fourth seed Romanian could barely
register two out of seven break points in the entire matchup to finish on the losing side in the end.
The unseeded Serbian will play her first quarter-final since last July’s appearance at the College Park on Friday, taking on Petra Martic of Croatia.
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