Medina Garrigues Saves Match Point, Makes QFs

The Grand Prix de SAR La Princesse Lalla Meryem's biggest and highest-ranked draw was nearly sent packing but wouldn't give up, as Spain's Anabel Medina Garrigues moved into the quarterfinals of the Tier IV event with a hard-fought win over Sesil Karatantcheva.
 
Medina Garrigues came to Fès with a wide lead over the rest of the field in the rankings, at No.34 weighing in 15 spots ahead of the next-highest player. She has also won six of her seven Sony Ericsson WTA Tour singles titles on red clay, making her the firm favorite at this event.
 
That concept was nearly overturned in Medina Garrigues' second match, as Karatantcheva, playing in her first Tour main draw since serving a two-year suspension for testing positive for a banned substance, grabbed an early lead. The Bulgarian, still just 18 years old, used her tremendous ground game to build a 63 53 lead over the Spaniard, even holding a match point at 63 54. But she double faulted at that critical juncture and the tides seemed to turn as Medina Garrigues rallied for the win, 36 76(4) 61.
 
"I'm horribly disappointed," Karatantcheva stated on the near-three hour loss. "Everything was working; I felt unbreakable from the baseline, but then I started getting a bit tired. What can I say, I'm probably getting old. Double faulting on match point was the worst part. I'll try to take the positives but it's really hard. When you've almost won and still lose, it's even more disappointing."
 
Karatantcheva, who made it to No.35 in the world as a 16-year-old before her suspension, has played her way back into the Top 250 with some solid results on the ITF Circuit this season, and hopes to play on the Tour again soon.
 
"I didn't even know I was coming to Morocco until the last minute; I had a feed-up from an ITF tournament in Italy," Karatantcheva added. "I'm 30 or 40 spots out of French Open qualifying. Hopefully, I can make it into Wimbledon qualifying. My next event will be wherever the wind blows."
 
No.1 seed Medina Garrigues wasn't the only seed to play her second round match on Wednesday, although she was the only one who escaped. No.3 seed Tathiana Garbin lost to Greta Arn, 64 75; No.5 seed Timea Bacsinszky was a 61 75 loser to Petra Cetkovska; and No.8 seed Ekaterina Makarova was a 76(4) 64 loser to Olga Savchuk.
 
The last two first round matches were also played and the seeds were far better in those, with No.2 seed Gisela Dulko downing Maria Elena Camerin, 61 61, and No.4 seed Aravane Rezai beating Vania King, 62 64.
 
The remaining four second round singles matches are all on Thursday.

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