Olga Govortsova overcomes Irina Khromacheva to reach the quarters – OEC Taipei WTA Ladies Open 2012
Seeded at number two in the tournament draw, Olga Govortsova registered a comprehensive victory over the Russian teenage opponent, Irina Khromacheva, in the second round of the OEC Taipei WTA Ladies Open on Thursday. The 24-year-old
Belarusian took merely 67 minutes to settle the final score line at 6-4, 6-2, in her favour and earned a place in the quarter-finals of the WTA event in style.
It was a fairly one-sided contest, with Govortsova dominating for most of the time. She had to overcome some early resistance from the 19-year-old Russian in the opening set but once she got settled in the contest, she never looked
back at her. The second seeded Belarusian just cruised through the second set, taking almost 20 minutes to wrap up the proceedings in an assertive manner.
It was the first face-off between these two contestants and Govortsova took very limited time to get under the skin of Khromacheva. She took full advantage of her the Russian’s error-ridden game play and kept playing her natural
game to perfection. Khromacheva’s strokes kept struggling to find their marks, landing long and wide of the court on most occasions. She also coughed four double faults on the most crucial stages of the match, which made her position even awkward in the contest
and let the second seeded contender prevail with ease.
A steady start was witnessed in the match, with both contestants holding their opening two serves before the real action began. Govortsova delivered the initial blow in the fifth game and broke the Russian serve to impose a 3-2
lead. Her opponent couldn’t retaliate effectively and the Belarusian served out of the first set at 5-4 to get the upper hand in the matchup.
Govortsova carried on her winning impetus in the following set and nailed two successive breaks of serve to rocket away to 4-0 lead in no time. It ended any hopes of comeback from the Russian underdog and Govortsova concluded her
victory by taking the second set at 6-2.
The second seed will take on the home favourite, Kai-Chen Chang, in the quarter-final brawl on Friday.
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