Top seed and defending champion Alexandra Dulgheru of Romania staged a grand fightback to win the opening match of the Al Habtoor Tennis Challenge in Dubai on Tuesday.
Martina Caregaro, the 278 ranked Italian, gave the defending champion a run for her money but the class and experience of the world number 52 eventually came to the fore as she won 6-7 (6/8) 6-3 6-2.
Dulgheru made too many unforced errors against a dogged opponent who never missed a chance to punish the loose balls. The first set didn't have a single break of serve even though Dulghero had four break points in the second game and lost them all.
In the tie-break, the Romanian, who had a career high ranking of 26 in 2012, had two set points at 6-4, but again she allowed Caregaro to get back into the game and the Italian grabbed the chances with both hands, taking the tie-break 8-6.
Dulghero improved remarkably in the second set, showing her trademark agility on the court that was missing in the first set. The Italian was pushed onto the back foot and Dulghero finally got the first break of serve in the fifth game of the second set.
The Romanian consolidated her position from there on with some crisp shots and in the ninth game broke her rival again to take the match to the decider.
The Italian found Dulghero unplayable in the third set, losing her serve twice as she raised the white flag with a tame return to the net.
"She played well, especially in the first set. And I was coming from an indoor tournament in Bucharest, so I needed time to get used to the playing conditions here," Dulghero told after her hard-fought win.
"The court was slow in Bucharest, but here the surface is very fast. So it was difficult for me at the start. Also I arrived here only at 1am on Tuesday. So any player would have been difficult for me today."
Earlier, Russian third seed Alexandra Panova was too strong for Nadiia Kichenok of Ukraine in her first round match. Using her powerful ground-strokes to great effect, Panova won 6-1 6-2.
After being outplayed completely in the first set, Kichenok was impressive until the fourth game of the second set. But the Russian soon found her top form again, winning the next four games on the trot to take the match in straight sets.
Second seed Klara Koukalova entered the next round with an easy 6-3 6-0 win over Egyptian qualifier Sandra Samir.
Meanwhile, eighth seed Maria Sakkari of Greece was knocked out in the first round by Frenchwoman Fiona Ferro 6-3 6-3.
Unlike Sakkari, it was smooth sailing for fourth seed Kristina Kucova of Slovakia who outclassed Russian Polina Leykina 6-1 6-0.
Sixth seeded Cagla Buyukakcay of Turkey comfortably beat Ukrainian Lyudmyla Kichenok 6-0 6-4 to enter the second round.
In other matches on Tuesday, India's Ankita Raina defeated Russian Marina Melnikova 6-3 6-2, Katerina Vankova of the Czech Republic beat Claudia Coppola of Italy 6-1 6-0, Spaniard Laura Pous-Tio defeated compatriot Cristina Sanchez-Quintanar 7-6 (8/6) 6-4, Tereza Martincova of the Czech Republic beat Irina Ramialison of France 6-7 (6/8) 6-2 6-2, Russian Natalia Vikhlyantseva defeated Dea Herdzelas of Bosnia 6-3 6-2 and Nicoleta Dascalu of Romania beat Russia's Maria Marfutina 6-4 6-4 in the battle of qualifiers.
Source: www.khaleejtimes.com