Christina McHale Lone American Qualifying Survivor; Vera Zvonereva Wins First Match On Tour in Years, Loses Second
(August 19, 2017) NEW HAVEN, Connecticut – Christina McHale was the lone U.S. survivor in the Connecticut Open qualifying on Saturday. The woman from New Jersey heads into the final qualifying match on Sunday. She defeated Japan’s Misaki Doi 6-4, 7-6(2) coming back from 0-3 down in the second set.
“It’s the last American in qualifying but I’m just really happy with how I competed today and how I fought,” McHale said to media. “It was a really up and down match. At times Misaki was really playing well and I kind of just had to weather the storm and try and use my serve to mix it up and get myself back into the games.
“Even when I was down 3-0, I knew that just like she had done in the first set, I could do the same. The games were still really close. Sometimes there were just times Misaki was coming up with shots that were really good.”
Zvonareva in press #CTOpenTennis pic.twitter.com/TCLNNAOdtr
— Tennis Panorama News (@TennisNewsTPN) August 19, 2017
Former two-time major finalist, Vera Zvonareva received a wildcard into the qualifying tournament in New Haven. The former world No. 2 is making a comeback. She won an ITF event in Egypt in July.
In her first qualifying match of the day, the Russsian rebounded to beat Anastasia Rodionova in the first round, 2-6, 6-3, 6-1.
In her second match, Zvonereva injured her left Achilles and retired down 7-5 to world No. 33 and former Wimbledon semifinalist Magdalena Rybarikova.
“Playing two matches was little bit too much for my body at the moment.”
She admitted that she felt good playing out there and knows she “can play better than this.”
“Overall it felt very good, I was in a competitive mood, able to make some great rallies, make some great shots and…I enjoyed it a lot.”
The 32-year-old admitted that at first she returned to tennis to get back into shape after having her baby girl, Evelyn, last year.
She admitted that during her two-year absence from the WTA Tour he missed the competition and the preparation – “dealing with ups and downs, fighting with yourself, making yourself better…. and of course winning.”
She talked about what brought her back to the sport: “I love the sport, I love the competition, I always did. Tennis is my passion.”
“Well, I started training because I wanted to get in shape after having a baby and I needed to do something. It was a bit difficult to push myself to go to the gym every day. So I said ‘Okay , I can go the gym one day, a little bit of tennis another day.’ So that’s how it started.”
She had opportunities to play some small exhibition matches, playing a little it more. “Some of those exhibitions did not work out, so I was practicing and training and wanted to play some more, that is kind of how it happened.”
Short term goal is to get healthy to play US Open qualies (next week).”
She is unsure about what if any events she’ll play after the US Open. “It just really depends on how I feel and how my family is and I will try to manage everything around it.”
