Germany and Hungary emerged as the two most successful countries following the first round of matches in the Women’s Singles event at the Erke Austrian Open in Salzburg on Friday 31st October 2008.
Both nations started proceedings with five players in the main draw, both concluded matters with four players through to the second round.
The one German to stumble was teenager Sabine Winter, whilst for Hungary it was Timea Varga.
Both suffered against the Czech Republic opposition, former against Iveta Vacenovska, the latter in opposition to Dana Hadacova.
Unbridled Success
However for the German trio of Tanja Hain-Hoffman, Nadine Bollmeier, Laura Robertson and Kristin Silbereisen it was unbridled success as it was for the Hungarians Georgina Pota, Rita Kertai and Petra Lovas whilst for Krisztina Toth she did not have to exert her energies.
Seeded eight, she received an opening round bye.
No Seventh Game Needed
Success for Tanja Hain-Hoffman came against the young Croatian Mirela Durak in five games, whilst for Nadine Bollmeier it was a six games victory against Russia’s Maria Bykova.
Similarly, Kristin Silbereisen did not need a decisive seventh game; she succeeded in five games against Russia’s rising star, Elena Troshneva.
Fine performances but the most impressive of all was from Laura Robertson; the former Laura Stumper now married to Welsh international, Adam Robertson. She beat Yana Timina of the Netherlands in four straight games.
Magyar Magic
In likewise vein, Rita Kertai and Petra Lovas won in straight games recording respective victories over Naomi Owen of Wales and the Czech Republic’s Dana Hadacova, whilst for Georgina Pota, she needed six games to overcome Austria’s Martina Petzner.
Irish Eyes Smiling
The successes for Germany and Hungary were to some extent as expected but the one player to raise the eyebrows was Ireland’s Liu Na; she beat Spain’s Galia Dvorak, a player who had shown good form in the team event.
Better News for Spain
A Spanish defeat but there was good news for that country.
Zhu Fang defeated Slovakia’s Andrea Daubernova, Sara Ramirez ended the hopes of Poland’s Monika Monika Pietkiewicz whilst for Jiao Yongli a place in the second round was assured.
Seeded no.13 she received a bye.
Czech Republic and Russia
Three players through to round two for Spain and it proved to be the same scenario for the Czech Republic. In addition to the successes of Iveta Vacenovska and Dana Hadecova, Renata Strbikova defeated Russia’s Polina Mikhaylova.
A reverse for Russia but there was success with Yulia Prokhorova and Anna Tikhomirova both emerging victorious; Yulia Prokhorova defeated Slovakia’s Lenka Kmotorkova, whilst Anna Tikhomirova ended the hopes of Sweden’s Carina Jonsson.
Poland
Two successes for Russia and there were two successes for Poland both against Austrian adversaries. Kinga Stefanska defeated Claudia Schatzer whilst Xu Jie overcame Melanie Luginger. They join sixth seed Li Qian in round two, their Polish colleague receiving a bye.
Successful Players
Also through to round two are England’s Joanna Parker, Japan’s Reiko Hiura, Croatia’s Sandra Paovic, Sweden’s Matilda Ekholm and Ekaterina Ntoulaki of Greece whilst the Austrians Liu Jia and Li Qiangbing both received opening round byes as did Croatia’s Tamara Boros, Singapore’s Sun Bei Bei, Li Jie of the Netherlands and Viktoria Pavlovich of Belarus.
Source: www.ittf.com
