On Saturday she thanked God that she eventually put up with the two days of travel involved from a tournament in her native Ukraine to Kolkata.
KOLKATA: It’s a battle between Marias in the final of the Sunfeast Open.
First unheralded Maria Koryttseva made her maiden final on the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour and then Maria Kirilenko overcame the haunt of three straight previous losses to overcome second seed Daniela Hantuchova.
Kirilenko’s coach had a fascinating warm-up session for her on Saturday as he just made her sit in a chair and soak in the atmosphere of the stadium while making her do fun concentration drills hitting a football around. The Russian barely hit the ball for ten minutes of the hour that she spent.
Whatever it was it seems to have worked as Kirilenko made sure she did not lose her fourth encounter against Hantuchova even after conceding the first set.
The 4-6 6-2 6-1 verdict puts her in her first final of the year and she does go in the favourite. Maria Koryttseva almost did not make it to the Sunfeast Open.
On Saturday she thanked God that she eventually put up with the two days of travel involved from a tournament in her native Ukraine to Kolkata. Koryttseva made her career’s first ever Sony Ericsson WTA Tour final when she overcame a strained thigh and a straining Anne Keothavong 7-6 (3) 6-3 to assure herself of at least $13,845 and 100 points for a finals appearance.
“Thank God I came. Look I am in my first final,” she exclaimed delighted. “Honestly there were no nerves but we both knew this was a great chance to reach the final and that did add to the pressure.”
The first set was replete with breaks and hung in the balance of shots that looked for inches in the vicinity of the sidelines. Koryttseva’s ability to dictate the point off her forehand forced Keothavong to search out her left flank and that in turn made things difficult for the Briton in tight situations.
The first set went down to the wire and till then it was quite impossible to suggest a winner.
Both players knew that a chance like this does not pop up every other day on the Tour and tapped everything in their arsenal to make that final. The second began on a worrisome note for Koryttseva as she called in the trainer to look at a bothersome thigh.
It did nothing to slow her down, however, as she came out to jump ahead by two games to make it 4-1 and then went on to close out the set 6-3.
“I really don’t know how much of an injury that was for she was running just the same. Next time I won’t let something like that bother me,” Keothavong revealed later how the break had upset her rhythm.
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