Tuesday at the Qatar Total Open waved goodbye to top seed Angelique Kerber, while soon afterwards second seed Simona Halep lost to qualifier Elena Vesnina in a grueling second-round match that lasted two hours and twenty-one minute and in which the Romanian wasted a set and 4-2 lead.
The first set was long and undecided. After an exchange of breaks early on, the fifth game lasted 12 minutes and 12 seconds, Vesnina saved six break points and kept the match on serve. After the second exchange of breaks in the eleventh and twelfth games, the set went into a tiebreak which Halep won comfortably.
The Romanian worked her way to a 4-2 lead in the second set and it looked like the favorite would win the match, but qualifier Vesnina went on a surge and won four straight games to take the match to the deciding set, which the Russian surprisingly easily won 6-1. Final score: 6-7(1) 6-4 6-1. (photos: Jimmie48)
Oh oh – my year-end ranking prediction for Simona is going for a toss already :-)))
Had to comment on something not pertaining to this match but it does apply to tennis fashion. There is a combined ATP/WTA event in Acapulco, Mexico where on The Tennis channel I was watching the Grigor Dmitrov match. I noticed a women linesperson was wearing the Adidas Spring Adizero dress that Ivanovic sports.
What an amazing game played by both of these athletes. I was pretty surprised by the results, but I’m excited to see how Vesnina does in the future!