Tamarine into the quarter-finals
[TENNIS] Thailand's Tamarine Tanasugarn has made it into her first WTA quarter-final in 15 months after shrugging off a slow start to beat American Abigail Spears in the second round of the US$175,000 Sufeast Open in Kolkata, India, yesterday.
The Thai, whose last quarter-final was in Eastbourne in June, 2005, dropped the first set 6-2, but then found high gear and won the next two sets 6-4 6-2. The win improved her career record over the 218th ranked American, who also lost to the Thai earlier this year in the qualifying rounds of the Australian Open. In the first set, Tamarine lost her momentum and allowed Spears to reel off four games in a row to take the set. But she recovered fast and raced to a 5-2 lead in the second set before the American fought back. At 2-2 in the decisive set, the Thai took control and won four straight games to wrap up the match. In the quarter-final on Friday, Tamarine is likely to play former world No 1 Martina Hingis of Switzerland. The top seed was scheduled to play Israeli veteran Tzipola Obziler in the second round last night.
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