Kovinic halts Gasparyan’s back-to-back bid in Tashkent
A handful of players came from a set down to prevail at the Tashkent Open on Wednesday – Margarita Gasparyan was not one of them.
Danka Kovinic ended Margarita Gasparyan’s Tashkent Open defence with a straight sets victory on Wednesday.
Stefanie Voegele took the number two seed the distance in Tuesday’s first round and Gasparyan was unable to regroup in time to see off Montenegro’s Kovinic in the last 16.
The world number 120 prevailed 7-5 6-4 and will face Sorana Cirstea in the quarter-finals after the number eight seed came from a set down to beat Ysaline Bonaventure 3-6 6-3 7-5.
Russia’s Anna Kalinskaya was another player to claim a comeback victory, seeing off sixth seed Tatjana Maria 3-6 7-5 6-2, to set up a last-eight showdown with Ukraine’s Katarina Zavatska – a straight-sets winner over Tereza Martincova.
Top seed Viktoria Kuzmova beat Greet Minnen despite dropping their opener 7-5. A gruelling tiebreak in the decider saw Slovakia’s world number 56 through 5-7 6-3 7-6 (7).
Continuing a theme, Timea Babos took the first set 6-2 against France’s Pauline Parmentier but subsided to a 2-6 6-4 6-3 loss.
Kristyna Pliskova overcame Katarzyna Kawa 7-5 3-6 6-4 to secure her spot as Kuzmova’s next opponent.
Alison van Uytvanck brought some Belgian cheer amid the losses for Minnen and Bonaventure by breezing past Monica Niculescu 6-2 6-1. She takes on Parmentier next.
