• Panova Upsets Fedek to enter main draw

Tashkent, September 21: Eighth seeded Galina Voskoboeva of Kazakhstan managed to break her three year old jinx at Tashkent registering a 6-4,3-6,6-4 win over Neuza Silva of Portugal and make it to the second round of the 11th edition of the Tashkent Open a Sony Ericsson WTA tour event being played at the Olympic Tennis School Tennis Courts here today.

Fifth seeded Stefanie Voegele of Switzerland, the other seed in action on the opening day, scored an easy 6-3, 7-5 win over Russian player Vitalia Diatchenko to make it to the second round.

“I’ve always lost in three sets at the Tashkent Open for three consecutive years, and I’m extremely thrilled to have broken the Tashkent jinx” said an elated Galina speaking after the match.

In the final rounds of the qualifying which concluded today fifth seeded Russian Alexandra Panova showed no signs of tiredness knocking out top seeded Yuliana Fedak of Ukraine 3-6,6-2,6-3 to make it to the main draw .

Ksenia Lykina , Arina Rodionova both from Russia ,and Lesya Tsurenko of Ukraine were the other qualifiers

Panova‘s win today is can be considered creditable in spite of she having played two back to back matches yesterday after undertaking a long flight from China. This is the second consecutive year that Panova made it to the main draw.

In one of the toughest matches of the day Tusrenko scraped past Kristina Mladenovic of France 4-6,7-6(2),6-3,while Rodionova stopped another Frenchwoman LauraThorpe 0-6,6-2,6-1.

Lykina scored a 6-3, 6-0 straight set win over country mate Natalia Orlova for a spot in the main draw.

Following are the results:

First Round singles
S.5 Stefanie Voegele (Sui) bt. Vitalia Diatchenko (Rus) 6-3, 7-5
S.8 Galina Voskoboeva (Kaz) bt Neuza Silva (Por) 6-4,3-6,6-4

Final Round Qualifying
(S.5 ) Alexandra Panova (Rus) bt (S1)Yuliana Fedak (Ukr) 3-6,6-2,6-3
(S8) LesyaTusrenko (Ukr) bt Kristina Mladenovic (Fra) 4-6,7-6(2),6-3 ,
(S6) Arina Rodionova (Rus) bt Laura Thorpe (Fra) 0-6,6-2,6-1.
(S4) Ksenia Lykina (Rus) bt (S7)Natalia Orlova (Rus) 6-3,6-0