Tamarine Tanasugarn outlasts Chin-Wei Chan to enter round two – Royal Indian Open 2012
Eighth seed, Tamarine Tanasugarn from Thailand, battled past the Taiwanese contender, Chin-Wei Chan, in a three-set thriller at the Royal Indian Open 2012 on Tuesday. She summed up a 6-2, 6-7(3), 6-1 victory over the 27-year-old to power into the round of 16 at this WTA (Women’s Tennis Association) 125 event taking place in Pune, India.
The seeded Thai swayed from her path in the second set. However, she went out of control in the last set and ultimately pulled out the victory in two hours and 14 minutes. After registering this success, Tanasugarn improved to a 3-0 lifetime in the head-to-head series against the world number 262 and progressed into the second round at this outdoor hard court event.
Tanasugarn made a powerful entry at the Balewadi Sports Complex. She drew the first blood in the second game and took a 2-0 lead. Despite levelling the scores in the fourth game, the Thai stayed charged up and eventually reeled off last four games. She dusted away three out of four breakpoints she came across and converted three out of eight break chances to her advantage.
The Kaohsiung native re-focused her strategy in the following set. She got the critical break in the opening game and jumped to a 2-0 lead. The Taiwanese lost her edge in the fourth game but cashed another break chance to leap to a 4-2 lead. Apart from losing her edge in the 10th game, Chan took the set to a tie-breaker where she prevailed and subsequently clinched the equaliser with a 7-6(3) score line.
Ranked 154th in the WTA Premier Rankings, Tanasugarn unleashed her true colours in the final set which counted the most. She went on a three-game rampage before Chan could come on the score sheet. The Thai maintained her intensity and reeled off last three games, eventually clicking the decider with a breadstick.
She will face off Turkey’s Cagla Buyukakcay in the pre-quarters at this WTA Challenger event.
The fifth seed, Kimiko Date-Krumm, will join Tanasugarn in proceeding round. She devastated the local qualifier, Rishika Sunkara, with a bagel to advance.
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