Romana Tabak shocks Mailen Auroux in the quarter-finals – ATT Women’s Circuit 2011
Slovakian qualifier Romana Tabak surprised everyone after upsetting a local wild card enterer Mailen Auroux with a breadstick at the ATT Women’s Circuit 2011, an ITF event taking place on the clay courts in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
She registered a 6-1, 6-2 victory over the local star to advance into the semi-finals on Thursday.
Duelling in front of a pessimistic crowd, the qualifier showed exceptional skills and abilities to slay Auroux, ranked 442nd in the Sony Ericsson WTA Premier Rankings, in under an hour. After blasting past the Argentinean,
Tabak not only secured a final four place but also got one step closer to lift her second year-to-date title.
World number 309, Tabak confidently entered the courts and held her opening serve through exquisite forehands and backhands. After the local starlet held her opening serve in the second game, Tabak unleashed flurry of groundstrokes
and went on a five games killing spree. She brushed off entire breakpoints faced and capitalised on two out of many breakpoint opportunities to her advantage to earn a breadstick.
The Slovak kept momentum floating into the final set and kept opening serve comfortably in the second game. She then broke Argentinean’s serve twice and held remaining serves to pocket the set with a 6-2 victory. Tabak again displayed
exceptional defensive skills and cashed in both breakpoint chances to her advantage.
Overall, the Slovakian rising star capitalised fully on the several unforced errors and double faults Auroux spilled. She also formulated a better first serve share and registered a marvellous 77 percent win on it.
Tabak just grabbed her maiden title last month (shocked second seed Florencia Molinero in the title round at the Asuncion ITF) despite enjoying a monotonous season. She exited from the qualifying rounds of many tournaments but
made quarter-final showings at Lenzerheide and Rotterdam ITF events. In this tournament, the Slovak battled past Argentinean Luciana Sarmenti and Ana Sofia Sanchez in three sets to qualify for the main draw. Mustering her performance further, she upset second
seeded local star Florencia Molinero in the opening round and eased past American qualifier Connie Chieh-Yu Hsu in straight sets to reach this spot.
Next up for the qualifier is the Norwegian qualifier Ulrikke Eikeri who upset Brazilian Teliana Pereira in straights sets to book this spot.
The Norwegian took almost one and half hours to seal the deal with 7-5, 6-3 score line. Eikeri dominated throughout the court and broke the Brazilian’s serve three times to conquer her.
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