Kaia Kanepi out of Eastbourne tournament in round two

Kaia Kanepi is out of the WTA Eastbourne tennis tournament in England, after losing in three sets, 6:4, 3:6, 6:3 to an on-form Beatriz Haddad Maia of Brazil, in round two.
Kanepi, ranked 39th in the world and back in the top 40 after the freshly-released WTA rankings were published Monday, beat Nuria Parrizas-Diaze (Spain) in round one; Haddad Maia had a bye in round one, but has won 10 matches on grass so far this season, including two finals in England – in Nottingham and Birmingham.
On the other hand, Kanepi won the last encounter – albeit on the clay at Roland Garros, in round two of the French Open last month.
In the first set, Haddad Maia immediately broke the Estonian's serve and was soon 2:0 up, while the Brazillian rescued two break points and held her serve in game four, after which the score was 3:1 to Haddad Maia. While Kanepi rescued a break point in the next tame, noone dropped their serve thereafter and the set ended 6:4 to Haddad Maia.
In set two, Kanepi broke her opponent's serve in game two and was soon 3:0 up. Again, both players held their serve and the score ended 6:3 to the Estonian.
The decider was similarly cat-and-mouse – Haddad Maia saved two break points early on, only for Kanepi to do the same, though at game six, Kanepi failed to realize two break points, while Haddad Maia turned things around and took thee lead 4:2. At 5:3 down, Kanepi saved two break points and went on to get four break points of her own – yet failed to convert any one of them, losing the game in the end, and with it the set 6:3 and thus the match.
The entire match lasted two hours and 22 minutes.
Kanepi faced a whopping 12 break points through the encounter, but failed to convert all bar one of them, while Haddad Maia won two of the five she was presented with.
Kanepi served up nine aces and committed five double faults; for Haddad Maia the respective figures were seven and four.
Kanepi is nonetheless the number 31 seed at Wimbledon, which starts Monday.
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Editor: Andrew Whyte