Tamira Paszek’s dream continues in the third round – Wimbledon Championships 2012
World number 37, Tamira Paszek of Austria, continued with her unbeaten grass-court season and has reached the fourth round of the Wimbledon Championships. She went through a gruelling three-setter before dumping the Belgian tennis ace, Yanina Wickmayer, in the third round battle on Saturday. The final scores were 2-6, 7-6(4), 7-5, in favour of the unseeded Austrian.
The 21-year-old was having a pathetic WTA season until her emphatic title victory in Eastbourne a week ago. Paszek beat all the odds to hunt down the reigning world number eight, Angelique Kerber, in the final of the AEGON International to break into the winners’ circle. The Austrian youngster then had a stunning start to her Grand Slam campaign when she overcame the former world number one and the seventh seed Dane, Caroline Wozniacki, in the opening round clash. She has been on her winning roll since then and has reached the round of 16 at this coveted mega event at the All England Tennis and Croquet Club.
Wickmayer had already suffered a cracking straight sets defeat at the hands of the young Austrian in 2008 in Auckland but started off the Saturday’s matchup in a convincing fashion. The Belgian went for an aggressive approach right from the beginning and managed to bring Paszek under pressure early. She belted 14 winners and secured 17 out of 29 first serve points to get the better of her opponent in the opening set. Despite of winning 22 out of 26 points on her first serve, Paszek couldn’t restrain the Belgian from nailing three crushing break points in the opener. She could barely register one serve break to curtail the deficit but Wickmayer sealed the set number one at 6-2 to get the upper hand in the match.
A much competitive second set was witnessed and the 21-year-old Austrian went on neck-to-neck with her counterpart. Both contestants exchanged three break points apiece to drag the scores to 6-6 and a tie-breaker round came into play. Paszek finally found her winning groove in the decider and clinched the second set at 7-6(4) to level the match score at 1-1.
The final set also went to the wire and a total of seven break points were registered from both sides. A crucial break of serve from Paszek in the 11th game shifted the momentum to her side and the Austrian served out of the match to register another upset victory in the tournament.
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