Russia Open 2012: Alina Artamonova makes it to Women’s Singles pre quarter-finals
The talented shuttler Alina Artamonova secured a spot in the Women’s Singles pre quarter-finals of Russia Open Grand Prix tournament after beating Viktoria Dergunova in opening match on June 27, 2012.
This first round encounter prolonged to 42 minutes and both compatriot shuttlers displayed amazing craft on court while registering final result of 19-21, 21-15 and 10-21.
This contest remained capricious until the last moment as at one stage Alina was in strong position to seal a straight-set victory. However, the opposing shuttler blocked her in the second set and setup a nerve-racking decider.
Alina managed to tip the scale in her favour and now she is looking to surpass another Russian campaigner Parkhomenko Maria to reserve a quarter-final ticket.
In the opening match, she made her intentions clear by clinching vital match point. She did not give her challenger even a single chance to get settled and pushed her on the back-foot with an intensive attack.
She confined the opposing contender in rear court and finished the first half with a notable difference in 11-6 total.
After one-minute break, she mounted pressure by reaching at 15-9 in third quarter of the set. Though, she made some mistakes but still she maintained upper hand all the way to game point situation.
Alina finished this segment of the show by registering 21-19 margin on the board.
The following game saved this match from being a dead contest as the losing player of first set stormed back and levelled the match score.
This time Viktoria’s strategy was right from the coaching book as she kept a low profile initially and then stunned her opponent with a sudden attack.
In first half of the set, she remained toe-to-toe until 10-11 before mid game break but then she controlled overall pace of the rallies and bagged crucial set with an overwhelming figure of 21-15.
With this revised status, the spectators were expecting lot of fireworks in the decider but their thirst was not filled completely.
Alina Artamonova dictated her competitor from very first shot to the last. She piled up a decent total of 11-6 and then wrapped the show with eleven-point difference in 21-10 margin.
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