Valeria Savinykh stoops to Zarina Diyas in the final qualifier - Guangzhou Int’l Women's Open 2012
World number 139, Valeria Savinykh, was dismissed in the final qualifier by the 292nd ranked Kazakh teenager, Zarina Diyas, who booked the berth in the main round of the GRC Bank Guangzhou International Women's Open
with straight sets 6-3, 6-4 victory at the hard courts of China.
The 18-year-old Kazakh stood firm in the start of the game; bagging all four points on her serve and making it 1-0 at the start. A perfect reply from her rival witnessed the scores moving on to 1-1 without much drama.
However, the following two games witnessed a gruelling battle between the two athletes. Diyas managed to save a breakpoint and hold serve but her opponent couldn’t survive the onslaught and went down early in the set; trailing
1-3 at that stage.
A comfortable serve hold for the teenager helped her away to a lead of 4-1. She was extremely close in breaking serve on two different occurrences in the following game but couldn’t manage to find the crucial point that could have
given her a stupendous two breakpoints lead.
Both players didn’t lose a single point on their serve in the following three games and that allowed the 18-year-old Kazakh professional to win the first set. It was a close fight from both ends but the mistake made in the fourth
game by the 21-year-old Russian cost her the set. However, there was still some hope alive to save an upset at that stage of the game.
A serve hold at both ends was coupled with successive breakthroughs for the teenager who cruised away to a lead of 4-1 by the end of the fifth game. It was another terrific start that brightened her chances of registering a final
qualifying round upset and more importantly making her way into the main round of the tournament.
Savinykh restored some respect with a breakthrough in the sixth game but couldn’t test her opponent in the remaining portion of the game; failing to fight back. Diyas won the encounter after a battle of an hour and 27 minutes.
The draws are not updated yet but the probable opponents for the Kazakh include Marion Bartoli, Olga Govortsova, Ying-Ying Duan and Sorana Cirstea.
Tags: