Suzan Lamens lost to Russian Anna Kalinskaja in her debut at the grass tournament in Rosmalen in the first round. On the untouched grass of the Libéma Open, Kalinskaja won: 7-6, 6-3.
The 22-year-old Dutch, number 173 in the world ranking, went well in the first set with the higher placed Russian (WTA-86). Lamens was not fooled by Kalinskaya’s love games.
At 3-3 in the first set, Lamens started to play more offensively and the Dutch took more initiative. She managed to break Kalinskaya on her serve, but needed six breakpoints to do so.
The Russian immediately answered by also breaking Lamens in her turn. Kalinskaja eventually won the first set in the tiebreak 7-5.
Just not enough
After a short interruption due to the rain in Rosmalen, the two tennis players continued in the second set, where Kalinskaja had already managed to create a 4-2 lead.
The Russian appeared to take advantage of the rain, as she came out of the catacombs strong. She broke on Lamens’ serve for the second time in the second set and was allowed to serve for the win. But Lamens threw a spanner in the works and was able to make it 5-3.
Before the next shower of rain had time to interrupt the game again, Kalinskaya finished it off.
