Barna has it tough

Seventh seed Anca Barna of Germany had to work hard to get past her Thai opponent Suchanan Viratprasert in the first round of the Tashkent Open in Uzbekistan on Monday.

Barna won 6-2, 6-4 but needed five matchpoints and a lucky netcord before she could close out the victory in one hour, 38 minutes.

Things looked pretty easy for the left-handed Barna in the first set but the Thai girl found her rhythm in the second and put a lot of pressure on Barna's service games.

"She was serving much better, returning much better… and I lost my concentration," said Barna after the match.

And it was her concentration that failed again when she had Viratprasert 0-40 down in the 10th  game.

"I thought the match was all over… I was thinking about what I was going to do next,' she said.

Luckily for Barna, Viratprasert could not capitalize on the concentration lapse. She did have a point for 5-all but as throughout the second set, she failed to close out points after creating the openings.

"I missed the lines by just a little bit during the crucial points," Viratprasert said later, smiling broadly, not showing any traces of disappointment.

Other first-round winners on the opening day of the USD 140,000 event at the Tashkent Tennis Centre were Yulia Beygelzimer of Ukraine and Anastasiya Yakimova of Belarus.

Beygelzimer crushed Martina Muller of Germany 6-0, 6-1 in just over an hour. Yakimova had to spend more than twice that much on court before overwhelming Adriana Serra Zanetti 4-6, 7-6 (5), 6-0.

Serra Zanetti, one of two sisters in the main draw, had her chance to finish the match in the second set tie-breaker. She trailed 2-4 but then won the next three points and was up 5-4 on serve. But she lost the next point after a long rally during which she disputed a line call. The loss of that point was too much. She double-faulted the next point to go set point down and Yakimova didn't need a second chance. A distressed Serra Zanetti was nowhere in the picture in the third set and Yakimova just steamrolled past her.

Earlier in the morning, the final four qualifying matches were played but with one more late withdrawal, that of Bahia Mouhtassine of Morocco, it meant that only one of the eight players in action would miss the main draw.

That unlucky player was Olga Savchuk of Ukraine, who lost 6-4, 6-2 to Ivana Abramovic of Croatia.

The three other winners were Ukrainian Katerina Bondarenko, Nadejda Ostrovskaya of Belarus and Maria Goloviznina of Russia. The three lucky losers were Ekaterina Bychkova (Russia), Ryoko Fuda (Japan) and Antonia Matic (Germany).

Monday's results:

Singles (1st round):

(7) Anca Barna (Ger) beat Suchanan Viratprasert (Thai) 6-2, 6-4
Anastasiya Yakimova (Blr) beat Adriana Serra-Zanetti  (Ita) 4-6, 7-6 (5), 6-0
Yulia Beygelzimer (Ukr) beat Martina Muller (Ger) 6-0, 6-1

Doubles (1st round):

Olena Antypina/Ekaterina Dzehalevich beat Anne Kremer/Antonia Matic 6-3, 7-5
Evgenia Linetskaya/Nicole Vaidisova beat Volha Havartsova/Anastasiya Yakimova 6-1, 6-4
Katerina Bondarenka/Valeria Bondarenko beat Akgul Amanmuradova/Ivana Israilova 6-3,  6-2

Qualifying (final round):

Katerina Bondarenko (Ukr) beat Ekaterina Bychkova (Rus) 6-1, 6-1
Ivana Abramovic (Cro) beat Olga Savchuk (Ukr) 6-4, 6-2
Nadejda Ostrovskaya (Blr) beat Ryoko Fuda (Jpn) 6-1, 7-5
Maria Goloviznina (Rus) beat Antonia Matic (Ger) 6-3, 7-5.

Tuesday's matches:

Singles:
Ryoko Fuda (Jpn) v Meghann Shaughnessy (USA)
Tamarine Tanasugarn (Thai) v Evgenia Linetskaya (Rus)
Silvija Talaja (Cro) v Ekaterina Bychkova (Rus)
Mara Santangelo (Ita) v Arantxa Parra Santonja  (Esp)
Marion Bartoli (Fra) v Iroda Tulyaganova (Uzb)
Ivana Abramovic (Cro) v Nadjedja Ostrovskaya (Blr)
Alena Vaskova (Cze) v Anne Kremer (Lux)
Katerina Bondarenko (Rus) v Virginie Razzano (Fra)
Maria Goloviznina (Rus)  v Akgul Amanmuradova (Uzb)

Doubles:

Adriana Serra Zanetti/Antonella Serra Zanetti v Daria Kustava/Tatiana Poutchek
Martina Muller/Julia Schruff v Anca Barna/Arantxa Parra Santonja
Anna-Lena Groenfeld/Meghann Shaughnessy v Qualifiers