2024-05-07 21:28:45
Viktoria Tomova lost in the final round of qualifying at the red court tournament in Rome of the WTA 1000 series with a prize fund of 5.5 million dollars.
The Bulgarian lost 4:6, 6:2, 6:7 (5:7) to the Mexican Renata Sarasua after 3 hours and 5 minutes of play. The match was stopped at 5:6 in the third set in favor of Saraswa, and after its resumption, the Mexican overturned the tiebreak from a deficit of 3:5 points.
Thus, Tomova remains hopeful that she can qualify for the main draw as a “happy loser”.
The match at the Foro Italico started well for Bulgaria’s first racket, who made an early breakthrough to take a 2-0 lead, but Saraswa, who are ranked 103rd in the world, quickly leveled at 2-2.
Several games followed in which the two tennis players took their serves easily, but in the tenth game the Mexican was ready for another break opportunity and immediately took advantage of it to win the first set 6:4.
Tomova, who is ranked 79th in the world as of this week, started better in the second set as well. This time, however, the Sofia woman did not give the initiative to her rival and tied the sets after 6:2.
At the beginning of the third set, the initiative in the game went to the side of Saraswa. The Mexican was the first to break, and in the fourth game of the set she reflected six opportunities that Tomova had to equalize.
Immediately after that, the Mexican made another breakthrough and pulled a 5:1 game in the result.
However, this was far from the end of the match, as the Bulgarian reached a sensational equalization at 5:5. She also saved two match points on her serve at 2:5 game, and then broke her opponent’s serve to zero.
Saraswa took his submission for 6:5, after which the match was stopped due to rain over the Italian capital.
About an hour later, it was resumed, with Tomova immediately forcing a tiebreak. In it, the Bulgarian led with 2:0 and with 5:3 points, but in the end allowed a reversal and allowed Sarasua to prevail with 7:5 points.