Slovenia’s Tamara Zidansek claims the Bendigo International title. (Photo by Rob Keating, http://photos.keatingmedia.com.au)
Slovenia’s Tamara Zidansek has pulled off the biggest win of her young career. At just 19-years-old, Zidansek defeated Australia’s Olivia Rogowska who was playing to secure back-to-back ITF Futures event titles. Rogowska had defeated Destanee Aiava last week in Canberra to claim the Apis Canberra International title.
After losing the first set, Zidansek fought her way back into the match to take the second set before romping away with the last set to take the title 5-7, 6-1, 6-0. The key moment came in the opening game of the final set when Rogowska fought hard to hold serve before eventually conceding the game after saving five break points. From that moment Zidansek cruised to victory.
Zidansek earlier this year won a clay court $25,000 tournament in Thailand.
“I’ve been practising on clay ever since I was a little girl and only started on hardcourts last year,’’ Zidansek said after her win.
“Most of the tournaments on the WTA (circuit) are played on hardcourts, so it’s important to know how to play on this surface.”
“In the second and third set I started to serve better and I stayed low and tried to move her around,’’ Zidansek said. “It worked out well.”
Zidansek now heads to Japan to compete in a $60,000 event and further build on her ranking, before returning to Australia for the summer of tennis. For Rogowska it was not all bad news, despite losing in the final, Rogowska had been awarded an Australian Open main draw wildcard based on her excellent results on the Australian pro tennis tour. Over recent times she won titles at Canberra, Cairns and Penrith.
