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02/10/2007
Tashkent Open: Amanmuradova overcomes opening jitters
Local girl Akgul Amanmuradova overcame opening day jitters to beat Hana Sromova of the Czech Republic and enter the second round of the Tashkent Open.
Other winners on the first day of the US$145,000 Sony Ericsson WTA Tier 4 Tournament were No 5 seed Ioana Raluca Olaru of Romania and Ksenia Palkina of Kyrgyzstan.
Amanmuradova, 23, runner-up at this event two years ago, won 6-3, 7-6 (2). It was a patchy performance which Amanmuradova blamed on playing immediately after the opening ceremony.
"There’s always a large crowd for the ceremony and while it’s nice to play in front of my homecrowd, it is difficult," she said. They make a lot of noise and I find it difficult to control my concentration. When I did that today, I played better."
It was all too evident towards the end of the second set. Amanmuradova broke 29-year-old Sromova in the seventh game but then lost the next four points on serve, allowing the Czech to draw level.
But then she raised her game again, holding serve comfortably and then racing to a 6-2 lead in the ensuing tie-breaker before finishing the match with a forehand to the open court.
"Akgul served much better and I made double-faults at the wrong time," said Sromova later.
No 5 seed Ioana Raluca Olaru of Romania overcame an unsteady start to defeat Petra Cetkovska of the Czech Republic 3-6, 6-0, 6-1.
Olaru, a quarter-finalist last week at Guangzhou, picked up the pace in her game even as Cetkovska’s serve disintegrated. Five double-faults in three games saw her being blanked in the second set and she was out of the match after that.
Olaru served the last of her eight aces in the match to get to matchpoint and followed up with another good serve, which Cetkovska hit long, to complete the win in an hour and 34 minutes.
Ksenia Palkina of Kyrgyzstan won her first Sony Ericsson WTA Tour main draw match when beat Ekaterina Dzehalevich of Belarus 6-2, 6-2 in a battle of qualifiers. Palkina, who turns 18 in December, is ranked 433, more than 250 spots below her opponent. But she simply had too much power for Dzehalevich and won in just over an hour.
Other winners on the first day of the US$145,000 Sony Ericsson WTA Tier 4 Tournament were No 5 seed Ioana Raluca Olaru of Romania and Ksenia Palkina of Kyrgyzstan.
Amanmuradova, 23, runner-up at this event two years ago, won 6-3, 7-6 (2). It was a patchy performance which Amanmuradova blamed on playing immediately after the opening ceremony.
"There’s always a large crowd for the ceremony and while it’s nice to play in front of my homecrowd, it is difficult," she said. They make a lot of noise and I find it difficult to control my concentration. When I did that today, I played better."
It was all too evident towards the end of the second set. Amanmuradova broke 29-year-old Sromova in the seventh game but then lost the next four points on serve, allowing the Czech to draw level.
But then she raised her game again, holding serve comfortably and then racing to a 6-2 lead in the ensuing tie-breaker before finishing the match with a forehand to the open court.
"Akgul served much better and I made double-faults at the wrong time," said Sromova later.
No 5 seed Ioana Raluca Olaru of Romania overcame an unsteady start to defeat Petra Cetkovska of the Czech Republic 3-6, 6-0, 6-1.
Olaru, a quarter-finalist last week at Guangzhou, picked up the pace in her game even as Cetkovska’s serve disintegrated. Five double-faults in three games saw her being blanked in the second set and she was out of the match after that.
Olaru served the last of her eight aces in the match to get to matchpoint and followed up with another good serve, which Cetkovska hit long, to complete the win in an hour and 34 minutes.
Ksenia Palkina of Kyrgyzstan won her first Sony Ericsson WTA Tour main draw match when beat Ekaterina Dzehalevich of Belarus 6-2, 6-2 in a battle of qualifiers. Palkina, who turns 18 in December, is ranked 433, more than 250 spots below her opponent. But she simply had too much power for Dzehalevich and won in just over an hour.
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