The Swedish Open brings double treats to Misaki Doi
It's going on three years that Japan's Misaki Doi accomplished her maiden title in her career and she was feeling the thirst of wanting another badly. She can remember her emotions upon winning her first career title in October 2015 at the Luxembourg Open against Mona Barthel. As she entered into this year's grass season she felt hopeful that it would be her breakout. But the French Open was a bust, losing at the opening round. Things didn't look good at the warm-up for Wimbledon. Doi lost her qualifying rounds at the Birmingham Classic and went into Wimbledon having that heavy cloud of failing riding over her.
Then the Swedish Open came. Situations changed for Misaki Doi as she entered the singles and doubles levels as she's done in so many tournaments. But this one was different. She had came on aggressive and won her first round with Australia's Alison Bai. Then Doi gathered her composure and consistency to defeat three ranked players: Elena Rybakina no. 7, Mona Barthel no. 4 and then no. 8 Aleksandra Krunic. These three wins were a confidence booster and there was no stopping Doi and her opponents knew that she was on a roll to continue winning over them.
Despite a ranking of no. 117, Doi is a seasoned player on tour for over a decade and displayed her experience upon not only defeating 3 ranked players but won the Swedish Open final over Danka Kovinic. The first set was a nail-biter as Doi came from 0-40 to lead 5-3. It was a matter of time that the young Japanese earned another game and allowed Kovinic another game to win the opening set 6-4. The second set both players went into a highly competitive mode but when Kovinic had her chances to rise over Doi, she blew them with unforced errors. Doi had kept the pressure on Kovinic and taking it in consideration this was their first meet, the young Japanese handled her no. 162 ranked opponent with skill and grace. She won on her serve and broke Kovinic's to win the Swedish Open singles title 6-4, 6-4 in nearly 80 minutes time.
Misaki Doi was feeling the love from the crowd and afterwards went on to her doubles match with partner Natalia Vikhlyantseva. Doi was bursting with confidence after her singles win and just knowing that her doubles competition would be partly with the player she just defeated, gave her super assurance. There were good things to look forward to and enjoy. They were battling the no. 2 seeds Alexa Guarachi and Danka Kovinic, of which Doi just defeated. The first set played defiantly and lead 5-2 but became reckless allowing their opponents three more games to tempt them. It took focus of which Doi and her partner had to win the opening set 7-5 even though the young Japanese was a bit fatigued fromher previous singles match title win. There was a bit lackluster performance by the Japanese andher Russian partner as they weren't able to seal the tiebreak second set giving it to their opponents and inducing a fiery battle in the third and deciding set. They gave it all they had to recover and gain consistency. Doi was left over from her singles win and poured on her spirit having added help to win the doubles title 7-5, 6-7, 10-7.
Misaki Doi heads to the hard court season patient and assured that if she can win singles and then doubles in the Swedish Open, she can come out victorious at many tournaments.
from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/2xQLkul
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