Pan Pacific Open and Tashkent Open Updates
The opening round of the Toray Pan Pacific Open began on Sunday in Tokyo. The major highlight of the day came about when 16th seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova got the better of Dominika Cibulkova in two sets with a final score of 7-5 and 7-5.
Despite the fact that both players had contested each other in doubles events at Wimbledon and the United States Open, Anastasia and Dominika had never faced each other in singles competitions. The 19-year-old Anastasia eventually defeated 21-year-old Dominika
in a total of two sets under two hours.
Meanwhile, 9th seeded Li Na was forced to withdraw from the Toray Pan Pacific Open prior to her clash as a result of her GI illness.
"My stomach felt terrible this morning. I was in a lot of pain and feeling very uncomfortable. After my warm-up I was feeling even worse. I tried everything I could to play but unfortunately I was in too much pain. I want to apologize to all of my fans here
in Tokyo. I always want to try my best for them here. I am really hoping to come back next year," said the world number 12 Li Na after her withdrawal on Sunday.
Li Na was a semi-finalist in Tokyo back in 2009. While commenting on her last year’s performance, the professional tennis player from China further added, “I did well here last year and it is just so disappointing for me to have to pull out as I really wanted
to put in a good performance this season. Anyhow, hopefully I will start feeling better in the next couple of days and will try to play well in the season ending tennis competition.”
Li’s foe, Maria Kirilenko as a result played lucky loser Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez and managed to win in three sets in the end. The final match score was 6-3, 6-7(5) and 6-1. Maria was headed for a straight set win as she built a lead of 6-3 and 5-3. However,
she lost a total of four points in a row from there on in, three on double faults and ultimately lost the set. She then stormed through the decisive set to advance into the next round of the Toray Pan Pacific Open in Japan.
In other first round matches, Olga Govortsova, Flavia Pennetta, Andrea Petkovic, Lucie Safarova, Kaia Kanepi, Alona Bondarenko, Daniela Hantuchova, Kateryna Bondarenko, Tsvetana Pironkova along with qualifier Greta Arn recorded victories on Sunday.
In other action in Uzbekistan, Russian tennis ace Alla Kudryavtseva captured her first WTA Tour trophy after ousting Elena Vesnina in an all Russian title battle at the Tashkent Open in two sets on Sunday. The final match score was 6-4 and 6-4.
Alla, who was seeded number seven to win the title, broke her fourth seeded opponent, Vesnina during the seventh game of the opening set on Sunday.
After an exchange of breaks halfway through the decisive set, Alla managed to break once again in the seventh game. The Russian then closed the clash by hitting an ace on the first of two match points.
It was Elena's second defeat in any final during this year. She was earlier brushed aside by another Russian, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in Istanbul during the month of July in 2010.
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