Shahar Peer reaches the second round after Lourdes Dominguez-Lino retires – Swedish Open 2012
Israeli number one, Shahar Peer, had a premature win at the clay courts of Bastad, Sweden, when her first round opponent, Lourdes Dominguez-Lino of Spain, retired in the second set with a thigh muscle strain.
Peer was comfortably leading the scores 6-4, 2-0 at the time of the retirement call from her rival. The 31-year-old Spaniard is ranked 74 in the world and was expected to give a tough test to the 49th ranked Israeli.
However, the fitness issues limited her game to a great extent and she looked uncomfortable from the start of the match.
The Spaniard came all the way from the qualifying stage and had already played three rounds earlier before the first official battle against Peer. The aging factor and the back-to-back games probably placed a lot of strain on her
thighs that resulted in an injury.
The opening set witnessed not much of a trouble for both players on their serves. Lino squandered two opportunities to break serve and her opponent followed her footsteps as well.
However, Peer was lucky to have a third shot to win a breakthrough in the ninth game and she converted that in her favour that proved to the defining distance between the two players.
The Spanish qualifier tried hard to win a breakpoint back in the 10th game of the match and keep the set alive but the hard fought battle ended up in despair for her. It was not her day and the following events declared
that as well.
The strain started to take a toll on the thighs of the Spaniard who failed to generate the same amount of pace in her serves and made her opponent’s life much easier than expected. Peer broke serve in the opening game of the second
set and followed it up with a cracking serve hold to enhance her lead further.
At that moment, Lino requested to call her physio on the court. After a short consultation and some treatment, the Spanish qualifier decided to withdraw from the encounter and handover the victory to the 49th ranked
Israeli who looked set to win the clash in straight sets.
Last match of the opening round will be played between the American lucky loser, Jill Craybas, and the French starlet, Mathilde Johansson. The winner will face Peer in the second round.
Craybas replaced the top seed Italian, Sara Errani, who apologized from the tournament officials after she incurred a shoulder injury.
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