• Amanmuradova, Abduraimova keep local interest alive
Tashkent, September 22: Coming back to the WTA Tour after nearly six months of oblivion unseeded Russian Ekaterina Bychkova created the first upset when she knocked out third seed and 66th ranked Romanian Raluca Ioana Olaru 7-5, 7-5 to enter 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.
The other seeds in action today Top seeded Yaroslava Shvedova ,Sixth seeded , Monica Niculescu ( Rou) and seventh seeded Patricia Mayr scored along with Uzbek Players Akgul Amanmurdova and wild card entrant Nigina Abduraimova scored contrasting wins to move into the last 16 .
24 year Russian Bychkova, a former top 100 player and currently ranked 120, came back from a six month grind on the ITF circuit to record her biggest win of the year knocking out the Romanian Olaru ranked 60 places above her in a 2.06 minute battle.
“I’m very excited about my win, really excited”. “Having played three weeks on clay and immediately coming here and playing on hard court and winning against Olaru is a good win for me” said Bychkova who was a top seed at this event in 2005.
“ I had two very tough years , from being in top 100 for two years , to suddenly being around 190, it is difficult to digest, but I guess this a part of the professional circuit” , said the 24 year old Russian. “Also this is sweet revenge for me as Olaru had defeated me at Eastbourne last year” she added
55th world ranked Yaroslava Shvedova of Kazakhstan served ten aces to outplay an out of form Italian Maria Elena Camerin 6-1,6-1 in 1hr 16 minutes.
However Olaru’s country mate sixth seeded and 78th ranked Monica Niculescu scored a easy 6-3, 6-0 win over Italian Corinna Denton, while seventh seeded and 83rd ranked Patricia Mayr of Austria scored a tough 7-5,6-4 win over Belarusian Ekaterina Dzehalevich in a 1hour 40 mins tussle.
Fifteen year old Wild card entrant Nigina Abduraimova justified the organizers decision of granting her a wild card as scored one of the biggest victories of her young career outplaying Qualifier Lesya Tsurenko of Ukraine ranked 618 places ahead of her. The tall and lanky Abduraimova currently ranked 867 won 6-3, 6-2 in a match lasting exactly 1 hour.
Local star Akgul Amanmuradova coming back from an injury played patchy tennis to overcome a late challenge from another Qualifier Ksenia Lykina of Russia , winning 6-1,4-6,6-3 in a 1 hour 50 minute battle
Speaking after the match the young Uzbek player Abduraimova said “ I’ve a incredible feeling, that I cannot explain . I had no pressure on me and just went for my shots I’m happy everything went well for me .
Following are the results:
Singles (First Round)
S.1Yaroslava Shvedova(Kaz) bt Maria Elena Camerin(Ita) 6-1,6-1
Ekaterina Ivanova(Rus) bt Lenka Wienerova (Svk) 7-6(5), 7-5
Evageniya Rodina bt Kristina Kucova (Svk) 7-6(5), 7-6(1)
S.6 Monica Niculescu (Rou) bt Corinna Dentoni(Ita) 6-3, 6-0
Ekaterina Bychkova (Rus) bt S.3 Raluca Ioana Olaru ( Rou) 7-5,7-5
Akgul Amanmuradova(Uzb) Ksenia Lykina (Rus) 6-1,4-6,6-3
Nigina Abduraimova( Uzb) bt Lesya Tsurenko (Ukr) 6-3,6-2
Darya Kustova(Blr) bt Yuliana Fedak (Ukr) 6-2, 6-4
Vesna Manasieva(Rus) bt Aleksandra Kolesnichenko (Uzb) 6-1, 6-1
S.7 Patricia Mayr (Aut) bt Ekaterina Dzehalevich (Blr) 7-5, 6-4
Alexandra Panova(Rus) bt Sandra Zahlavova (Cze) 6-2,6-1
Kathrin Woerle (Ger) bt Sabina Sharipova (Uzb) 7-6(0),7-5
Doubles ( First Round)
Maria Elene Camerin(Ita) / Ksenia Palkina(Kgz) bt Iroda Tulyaganova/Albina Khabibulina 6-7(2),6-1,13-11
Yuliana Fedek(Ukr)/Vesna Manasieva(Rus) bt Ani Maret(Est)/Lesya Tsurenko(Ukr) 6-4,3-6,10-4 .
Vitalia Diatchenko(Rus)/ Ekaterina Dzehalevich (Blr) bt Stefanie Voegele(Sui)/Patricia Mayr (Aut) 6-4,7-6(4)
S.1 Ipek Senoglu(Tur)/Yaroslava Shvedova(Kaz) bt Kristina Kucova(Svk)/Kathrin Woerle ( Ger) 6-3,7-5
