Defending champion in the doubles Demi Schuurs from the Netherlands , this year playing with Oksana Kalashnikova from Georgia, and defending champion in the singles Anna Karolina Schmiedlova form Slovakia are both out of the tournament. Schmiedlova was facing Pauline Parmentier in the first round. She had a complete off-day. Pauline Parmentier was playing well and Anna Karolina produced many unforced errors. It was a pity that she was not able to improve her game after she lost the first set with 6-2. On the contrary, the second set was a unadulterated bagel (6-0). Demi Schuurs and Oksana Kalashnikova played against Valentyna Ivakhnenko and Marina Melnikova from Russia. Although Demi and Oksana won more games (11-8), they lost the match. In the first set they were a break behind, but managed to come back at 5-5, but immediately after the rebreak they lost their on game and when down (5-7). They seemed to be completely back on track in the second set which they won with convincing figures (6-1). A super tie-break had to be played. They couldn’t sustain their good game of the second set. The Russian girls came back and won the match by winning the tie-break (10- tiebreak.
Towards the audience both Anna Karolina and Demi showed themselves great ambassadors of the tennis community. Although they lost their matches, they both gave autographs to their fans after the match.
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