Shahar Peer struggles past Olga Puchkova in the opening qualifier – Sony Open Tennis 2013
Israeli tennis ace, Shahar Peer, had to go through some rough channels before overcoming the fourth seeded Olga Puchkova on Monday. The 116th ranked contender took one hour and 46 minutes to register a final score line
of 6-2, 3-6, 6-4, to dispose of the world number 77.
Peer had already defeated the Russian at Gold Coast, Australia, in 2007 but the Monday’s contest proved a bit tough for her. She bagged the opening set in a comprehensive manner but Puchkova came up with some stunning tennis in
the second set to level the set scores at one-all. However, the Israeli number one regained her lost impetus in the decisive set and cruised to victory in style.
Puchkova served in the opening game of the match and suffered an early setback when Peer broke her right away. The fourth seed Russian struck in the second game, only to be broken in the very next game to fall back at 1-3 later.
Peer carried on with her flow and nailed her third break point of the day in the seventh game. She convincingly served out of the opener at 5-2 to get the upper hand in the match.
The second set took off in the similar manner as the opening one did, with both players exchanging serve breaks in the first two games. Another trade of break points was seen from both sides in fourth and fifth games and the scores
were levelled at 3-3. Puchkova took hold of an opportunity in the eighth game and broke into a 5-3 lead. She wrapped up the second set with a successful serve hold in the following game.
With the match levelled at one-all, the final set was bound to be a nail-biter and it actually proved to be the one. Four successive serve breaks from both sides dragged the scores to 3-3. Both contenders exchanged another pair
of break points in the eighth and ninth games. However, Peer go the match point on Puchkova’s serve in the 10th game and she quickly cashed in the opportunity to seal her victory at 6-4.
Peer have to take down the 19th seeded German, Tatjana Malek, in her next match to qualify for the main draw of the tournament.
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