14 December 2005
Bartoli and Nagyova advance
Gulf News - Alaric Gomes
Dubai: Henrieta Nagyova overcame some tense moments before setting aside Aravane Rezai of France to book a spot in the quarterfinals at the seventh Al Habtoor Tennis Challenge here last night.
Also booking their rightful spot in the last eight stages were top seed Marion Bartoli, second seeded Lourdes Lino Dominguez, eighth seeded Jelena Kostanic and Sandra Kleinova.
The lone upset for the day was when Kateryna Bondarenko stunned her sister and the fourth seed here, Alona Bondarenko in straight sets.
Much of the excitement was reserved for the later stages of the evening between Nagyova and Rezai.
Nagyova had things going her way in the early stages. But she saw a sudden turn of fortunes as the French teenager of Iranian parentage came up with some fantastic backhand winners to nearly upset the Slovak's applecart.
Though the scoreline read 6-2, 6-4 in favour of the Slovak, the fight went to the wire with some unforced errors proving decisive for Rezai.
"One has to be very careful with such players. One never know what exactly one needs to do when there is so much power in those shots," Nagyova admitted after her win.
Nagyova did well to notch two successive breaks in the first and third games for an early 3-0 lead. But Rezai, who had stunned fifth seeded Julia Schruff the previous day, came up with some astounding shots down the baseline to secure a break for 3-1.
But her forehand proved to be her downfall as Kostanic sent down returns in that direction to break her one more time for a 4-1 lead. Nagyova then sent down two successive aces to hold serve and make it 5-1. But Rezai was not giving up that easily as she held serve for 5-2.
In the second set both players went neck and neck till the fifth game where Nagyova got a much-needed break for 3-2. "Once I got the break, I got a lot of confidence and that helped," Nagyova said. "Luckily my serve held up well against her and that helped me even more," she added.
The Slovak girl, presently 168 on the WTA Rankings, wants to use the Dubai tournament to secure some vital points while also using this competition to prepare for the busy season ahead starting with the Australian Open.
"Dubai is lovely and I want to take one match at a time. I hope I can be here till the final day," she said.
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