12 October 2003

Ukrainian Katerina Bondarenko must have played the shortest match of her career as she took just 30 minutes to blank Dubai-based Dima Al Sa'adi of Syria 6-0, 6-0 in the opening qualifying round for the 6th Al Habtoor Tennis Challenge at the Metropolitan Resort and Beach Club yesterday.

Bondarenko, who turned 17 in August, was in flowing form as she powered her way through in straight sets.

If that opening game was a cakewalk, the most exciting one came later in the evening as Bulgarian Maria Penkova held her nerves to secure a thrilling 7-6 (2), 2-6, 6-4 victory against Italian opponent Silvia Disderi to advance to the second round of qualifying.

The opening set went all the way with Disderi squandering a 3-1 advantage following the first break of the match to lose in the tie-breaker.

Penkova, who was momentarily having a tough time with her serve, kept her nerve and broke her Italian opponent in the very next game.

However, either player failed to capitalise on the break as they broke each other yet another time to draw level 4-4, till it went to the tie-breaker.

In the second set, Disderi breezed through winning easily 6-2, only to see the 19-year-old Bulgarian weather away the humidity and the Italian's mix game to win 6-4.

In the third match of the evening, Romania's Liana Balaci cruised to a 6-3, 6-4 win in 1 hour and 25 minutes against Switzerland's Vanessa Wellauer.

Results
Liana Balaci bt Vanessa Wellauer 6-3, 6-4; Katerina Bondarenko bt Dima Al Sa'adi 6-0, 6-0; Maria Penkova bt Silvia Disderi 7-6 (2), 2-6, 6-4.

Order of Play
(9 am) Zsofia Gubacsi vs Sandra Klemenschits; Daniella Klemenschits vs Aurelia Miseviciute; Angelika Roesch vs Caroline Schneider; Katerina Bondarenko vs Gulnara Fattakhetdinova. (4 pm) Camille Pin vs Kirstin Freye; Mervana Jugic-Salkic vs Olena Antypina; Liana Balaci vs Evgenia Linetskaya; Maria Penkova vs Lina Stanciute. (140x180)

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