Elene Malõgina holds on to win in Kazakhstan
Elena Malõgina beat Sarah-Rebecca Sekulic (Germany) in Wednesday's closely fought round one clash at the W35 level International Tennis Federation (ITF) tournament in Astana, Kazakhstan, in three sets, 6-4, 2-6, 7-6 (7-5).
Seeded eighth in the tournament and ranked 469th by the WTA, Malõgina took the first set over Sekulic, WTA 991st.
The Estonian started the second set with a service break but then lost three of her next four service games and lost the set 6:2.
In the decider, however, Malõgina took a 4-0 lead, and although her opponent broke back once, she had the opportunity to serve for the match at 5-4. She then squandered three match points and lost that game, after which Sekulic then took a 6-5 lead and had a match point on Malõgina's serve. Sekulic, too, was unable to convert, taking the set to a tiebreak.
Both players held their serves steadily until Malõgina earned a match point at 6-5, which this time she successfully converted.
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Editor: Andrew Whyte, Siim Boikov
