Baku Kicks Off With Blowout Victory For Voskoboeva

Galina Voskoboeva double bagled Sofia Shapatava in the opening first round match at the inaugural Baku Cup.

Published July 18, 2011 04:55

Baku Kicks Off With Blowout Victory For Voskoboeva
Galina Voskoboeva

BAKU, Azerbaijan - The first-ever main draw match at the Baku Cup had as one-sided a scoreline as the tournament will ever have, with Galina Voskoboeva routing Sofia Shapatava, 60 60, in 54 minutes on Monday.

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"It doesn't happen very often, so I'm really happy with that," said Voskoboeva, who had never previously recorded a WTA double bagel win. "I played pretty quick and it was not that tough, which is good for me with the hot weather conditions here. Still, even in a 60 60 match, it's not that easy to keep your concentration the whole time."

Voskoboeva, whose ranking of No.162 is her highest since May 2010, said she did not foresee such a lopsided victory.

"I know if you feel a certain way before the match, it will go the other way," she said. "So you focus as much as you can before the match. If you are the opposite and are too relaxed expecting it to be easy, usually it doesn't go the way you want it."

Also winning her first round match was Vesna Dolonts, 63 63, over Alona Bondarenko. Dolonts tied her career-best showing at her last event two weeks ago in Bastad, reaching the quarters, resulting in her rising to a career-high ranking of No.91.

Baku also experienced its first upset, with Mariya Koryttseva beating No.6 seed Elena Baltacha, 61 75. The Ukrainian was down two breaks at 0-3 in the second set and one break at 2-4 but only lost one game the rest of the way.

Three Russians secured main draw berths with wins in the final round of qualifying: Valeria Solovieva, Elena Bovina and Yana Buchina.

Top-seeded Vera Zvonareva and second-seeded Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, playing their first matches since Wimbledon, are among those in first round action Tuesday at the first hardcourt event of the summer.

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