TENNIS - TEENAGER ANISIMOVA POSTS FIRST TOP-LEVEL VICTORY
American teenager Amanda
Anisimova recorded her first top-level victory with a 6-2 6-2 thrashing of
Pauline Parmentier at the BNP Paribas Open in California on Wednesday.
The 16-year-old’s
poised and polished performance was in stark contact to the dismal display of
Canadian Eugenie Bouchard, who was humbled 6-3 6-4 by American qualifier Sachia
Vickery.
Anisimova, the
junior women’s U.S. Open champion, was stronger than the 32-year-old Parmentier
in every facet of the game on the slow hardcourt in Indian Wells.
“It’s very exciting.
I’ve worked really hard for this so I’m proud of myself,” Anisimova told Tennis
Channel, adding that adjusting to the senior ranks had been more mental than
physical.
“The biggest thing
is being tough mentally. I’ve learned about how to just be stronger during
matches.”
She will face
Russia’s 23rd seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the second round.
Switzerland’s
Belinda Bencic, who was also a teenage prodigy but has had her career blighted
by injury, also advanced by overcoming an awful start and a match point to beat
Hungarian Timea Babos 1-6 6-1 7-6(4).
Bencic was so focused on the task at hand rather than the score that she did not know at the time that she faced match point when serving down 5-4 and 40-30 in the final set.16-year-old wild card Anisimova notches her 1st WTA main draw win, defeating Parmentier 6-2 6-2.— BNP Paribas Open (@BNPPARIBASOPEN) March 7, 2018
Next up for the American: No. 23 Pavlyuchenkova. #BNPPO18 pic.twitter.com/dTv9cbGZhU
“I didn’t realize it
was match point actually,” she said.
“We were both very
tired and it was so intense for us both. We were both just fighting and leaving
our hearts out there.”
Former world number
five Bouchard was outclassed by 100th-ranked Vickery in her first match since
reaching a settlement with the U.S. Tennis Association (USTA) over a locker room
fall during the 2015 U.S. Open.
Her weak second
serve was particularly costly as Vickery pounced time and again in front of a
sparse late-afternoon crowd on centre court.
The unseeded Maria
Sharapova, the 2006 and 2013 champion, is scheduled to open her campaign
against Naomi Osaka of Japan later on Wednesday.
Serena Williams, in
her first singles event since having a baby last year, faces Zarina Diyas of
Kazakhstan on Thursday.
SOURCE: REUTERS
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