Sofia Shapatava slays Zuzana Luknarova to advance into final qualifiers – Gastein Ladies 2011
Georgian Sofia Shapatava swat past Slovak Zuzana Luknarova with a bagel at Nurnberger Gastein Ladies, a clay court tournament held in Bad Gastein, Austria. She barely sweat to register a 6-0, 6-2 victory over the 20-year-old Slovak
to advance into the final round of qualifiers on Sunday.
Ranked 256th in the Sony Ericson WTA Premier rankings, Shapatava triumphed over the Slovak, ranked sixty-eight places below her, in sixty-nine minutes on their first head-to-head. After earning this success, she inches
to the main draw of this $220,000 event and eyes for her first WTA title.
22-year-old Georgian went berserk in the opening set as she bombarded quick forehands and backhands to reel off all six games in a row. She clobbered a slightly higher first serve share of 63 percent as compared to Slovak’s 60
percent and registered a fabulous 73 percent win on it. She then saved both breakpoints conceded and cashed in half of the six breakpoint chances to her advantage to put the cherry on the set.
The Georgian kept momentum rolling into the final set as she held her entire serve by saving four breakpoints and rolling the balls expertly onto the lines. She converted two out of eleven breakpoint opportunities to her advantage
to seal the deal with a 6-2 win. Shapatava produced a higher first serve share of 74 percent as opposed to Luknarova’s 70 percent, registering an impressive 69 percent win on it.
The higher ranked Georgian hasn’t had much progress in WTA tournaments but performed well at ITF events. She made quarter-final berths at Tessendelo and Rome-Tevere Remo and semi-final showing at Izmir. Shapatava also reached final
at Kharkiv before losing to Lina Stanciute.
Up next for the Georgian is the local Nicole Rottmann who stunned sixth seeded Polish Marta Domachowska in straight set to reach this spot.
The local hero warded off early resistance to dominate in the first set tie-breaker and then broke Polish’s serve twice to register a 7-6(6), 6-3 victory in one hour and thirty-seven minutes.
Rottmann produced a slightly higher first serve share of 57 percent as compared to Domachowska’s 54 percent and earned an impressive 64 percent win on it in the opening set. She broke the Polish’s serve thrice but lost her serve
three times as well. The set went to a tie-breaker where the Austrian prevailed to clinch the opener with a 7-6(6) win.
22-year-old Austrian saved both breakpoints faced and converted two out of three breakpoint opportunities to her advantage to bag the final set with a 6-3 win.
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