Slovakia's Ema Labosova in action during the qualifying round at the Lusail Sports Arena yesterday.
Doha: World No. 348 Ema Labosova cruised into the main draw of the WTT Star Contender Doha 2021 after a win in final qualifying round at the Lusail Sports Arena yesterday.
Slovakia's Labosova booked her place in the women’s singles round of 64 after rising above the odds to take down higher-ranked Goi Rui Xuan of Singapore in four games (12-10, 12-10, 8-11, 11-6).
Further down the draw, Ukraine’s Solomiya Brateyko negotiated a stern test to extend her stay in Doha. Brateyko was forced to dig deep against teenage counterpart Prithika Pavade, holding her nerve at 1-2 down to recover an impressive 3-2 victory over the ever-improving French star (11-5, 7-11, 9-11, 11-6, 11-9).
Two of Slovenia’s bright young sparks Ana Tofant, 22, and Katarina Strazar, 20, met face-to-face as they fought over national pride and a ticket to the main draw. Come the close of five gruelling games, Strazar held the upper hand (11-9, 5-11, 12-10, 9-11, 11-9) to set up a round of 64 encounter with Austria’s Karoline Mischek.
Brazil’s Eric Jouti was involved in one of the day’s outstanding comeback performances, securing his passage to the men’s singles main draw after beating Singapore’s Beh Kun Ting in the second qualifying round (10-12, 11-7, 11-7, 9-11, 11-5) and Frenchman Bastien Rembert 3-2 (4-11, 7-11, 11-5, 11-8, 12-10) one round later.
China’s Lam Siu Hang, South Korea's Cho Seungmin and Germany’s Ricardo Walther also made it to the main round.
