Tashkent Open & BCR Open Romania: Friday’s Review
For the first time in the 15 year history of the Tashkent Open, two Russian players will fight it out in the final, to be contested on Saturday. Both of them will be competing for their very first career singles trophy in Tashkent.
Yesterday’s semi-final clash saw fourth seeded Elena Vesnina getting the better of her fifth seeded opponent Monica Niculescu in three sets with a score of 6-3, 3-6 and 6-4. She did well to bounce back from 4-1 down during the third set and thus ended the dream week for Monica, who had never previously gone beyond the final eight of an event.
In the second semi-final on Friday, seventh seeded Alla Kudryavtseva defeated seventh seed Evgeniya Rodina in a three set encounter with a score of 6-1, 3-6 and 6-3. With the decisive set knotted at 3-3, Alla won the last three games to clinch the match which was her third win in four career encounters against Kudryavtseva. Evgeniya had never gone beyond the final eight of an event until this week.
As far as Vesnina was concerned, she has so far reached the title battle of three tournaments in her career. Elena lost in the final of Istanbul earlier this season and in New Heaven and Auckland back in 2009. This is her fifth season in Tashkent, with a semi-final finish during last season being her best result. As for Alla, prior to the previous week, she had never gone beyond the quarter of this competition. However, she was a finalist in Guangzhou and now has a great opportunity to top that result here in Tashkent.
This is going to be the third all-Russian title battle for this season where Alisa Kleybanova eliminated Elena Dementieva in Kuala Lumpur and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova got the better of Vesnina in Istanbul. Elena and Alla have met each other on just one occasion before, with Elena triumphing in a total of three sets in Rome back in 2008.
The doubles title battle is also scheduled on Saturday with Magdalena Rybarikova and Alexandra Dulgheru taking on another unseeded duo of Tatiana Poutchek and Alexandra Panova. Both teams were winners in clash tie-breaks on Friday as Rybarikova and Dulgheru brushed aside the top seeded duo of Niculescu and Jill Craybas where as Poutchek and Panova defeated the fourth seeded pairing of Sophie Lefevre and Maria Kondratieva in straight sets.
In other action, Spanish tennis player Albert Montanes stepped up his bid for a third trophy of the season by advancing into the semi-finals of the BCR Open Romania being played in Bucharest.
The 29-year-old has already won competitions in Estoril and Stuttgart where he also managed to defeat Roger Federer in the semi-final match. Moreover, he has also achieved a career high ranking of world number 22 earlier this season by the Association of Tennis Professionals.
Being the number one seed at the clay court competition in Bucharest, he was given a scare by French tennis ace Jeremy Chardy on Friday. However, he managed to overcome in the second set to triumph in a total of three sets. The final match score was 6-3, 1-6 and 6-3.
Awaiting Albert in the final four is another tough test in the form of fourth seeded player Juan Ignacio Chela. This 31-year-old Argentinean defeated Bjorn Phau from Germany in a total of two sets with a final score of 6-3 and 6-3.
Third seeded Italian ace Potito Starace bundled out of the championship, despite going close to a straight-sets victory over Spaniard Marcel Granollers on Friday.
Potito led by a set and the second went down to a tie-break, but Marcel clung on and ended a three set win with a score of 3-6, 7-6 (9/7) and 6-4.
Marcel will now meet Spain’s Pablo Andujar, who toppled Uruguayan Pablo Cuevas in a total of two sets 6-4 and 6-4.
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