Russian starlet, Anna Chakvetadze, bounced back to stun the qualifying top seed, Lesia Tsurenko, in a three set mouth-watering match at the qualifying competition of e-Boks Open 2012. She jolted down a 5-7, 6-4, 6-2 success against the 22-year-old to secure a place in the main draw of this indoor hard court tournament held in Farum, Denmark north of Copenhagen.
Chakvetadze made a shaky start at this WTA (Women’s Tennis Association) International event eventually lost the opening set. However, she made an epic comeback to not only claim this two hours and three minute hard-fought battle but also book a spot in the opening round.
The 22-year-old stormed into the Farum Arena and drew the first blood in the opening game to eventually go 2-0 up. Tsurenko then held her remaining serves until she lost her serve to love in the 10th game and squared the scores at 5-5. However, she maintained her intensity and broke her rival’s serve in the very next game, consequently clinching the opener with a 7-5 score line. Ranked 398th in the WTA Premier Rankings, Chakvetadze carried her losing ways in the following set and after suffering the first blow in the third game, she went 1-3 down. However, the Russian made a fitting reply and stroke out the last four games in a row, consequently sealing the equaliser by winning six games to four.
The Russian kept her spark lit in the final set and after breaking Tsurenko’s serve twice early in the set, she jumped to a 5-1 lead. Despite squandering her chance to serve out the decider with a breadstick, Chakvetadze capitalised on another break chance in the eighth game and pocket the set with a 6-2 win. Chakvetadze will square off against France’s Pauline Parmentier in the opening round.
The qualifying second seed, Melinda Czink, faced a better fate later that day. She hit back from a set down to outfox the Swiss competitor, Amra Sadikovic, in a three set nail-biter to progress. The Hungarian starlet dusted away 10 out of 14 breakpoints she faced and capitalised on four out of 10 break chances to formulate a 2-6, 7-6(1), 6-3 victory.
