Centre court hosted the match Malaysian tennis fans were looking forward to as local lass Jawairiah Noordin took on World No 110 YuliaPutintseva of Kazakhstan.
Jawairiah started off brightly in the first set as she put her good forehand to use and did not commit any unforced errors. She even managed to take the second game but as the matched progressed, Putintseva began to assert herself by attacking Jawairiah’s backhand, and Putintseva eventually took the first set 6-2.
In the second set, Jawairiah managed to break Putintseva’s serve with the score at 3-1, but Putintseva managed to recover her composure and take control of the match, eventually winning the game in straight sets 6-2, 6-1. Later on after the match, Jawairiah commented, “I felt I did fairly well during the game, as I am lacking game time and exposure, which is what I look forward to improving this year. I tried my best and I did what I could to challenge Putintseva, as I managed to catch her off-guard a couple of times during the match, but her greater experience showed she deserved her win.”
“Where my game is concerned, I will be working on improving my backhand and forehand, and I also need to exercise patience while working on my game. Tomorrow I will be partnering TheiviyaSelvarajoo in the doubles match against Han Xinyun and JunriNamigata, and I promise all of you we will go out on court and try to do our very best. I hope Malaysian tennis fans will come out to support us for tomorrow’s match,” said a determined Jawairiah.
In one of the biggest upsets of this tournament, 2014 Australian Open Junior Winner ElizavetaKulichkova of Russia sent a clear message of her winning intent and the threat she poses in this tournament as she comfortably beat seventh seed BojanaJovanovski of Serbia in straight sets 6-3, 6-3. “I played some of my best tennis today and I made use of my strengths such as my speed to overcome Jovanovski. Whether seeded or unseeded, I treat every opponent the same as the standard of the game is at a very high level”. Kulichkova’s next opponent will be none other than YuliaPutintseva.
In other singles matches, World No 107 KaterynaKozlova of Ukraine managed to see off the challenge of popular Chinese player ZhengSaiSai in straight sets, 6-3, 6-4.
Kozlova will face either AllaKudryavtseva or Julia Georges in the next round. In the all China singles match, World No 116 Duan Ying-Ying managed to upstage her compatriot World No 156 Xu Yi-Fan over three sets, 6-0, 3-6, 6-3. Her next opponent will either be World No 94 Alexandra Dulgheru of Romania or World No 28 Sabine Lisicki of Germany.
In doubles action, the Anglo-German pair of Naomi Broady and Carina Witthoeft easily managed to defeat Argentine Tatiana Bua and Patricia Mayr-Achleitner of Austria in straight sets 6-0, 6-2.
The main draw matches for both singles and doubles disciplines will continue tomorrow, as players march on to the final 16 of the tournament. Stay tuned for all the tennis action happening right here at the BMW Malaysian Open 2015.
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