Out after 169 minutes

Tamira Paszek’s fight in France went unrewarded

Tamira Paszek reached the quarter-finals of the ITF W75 tournament in Le Neubourg, France, on Friday evening. The 33-year-old from Vorarlberg was beaten in three sets by local hero Tessah Andrianjafitrimo after a fierce battle.

On Friday, the 25-year-old Frenchwoman first had to complete her round of 16 match against top seed Snigur from Ukraine, which had been abandoned the day before due to rain and darkness, in which she prevailed 6:4, 2:6, 6:3.

The quarter-final against Tamira Paszek (WTA no. 385) from Dornbirn therefore only started shortly before 6 pm. Although Andrianjafitrimo (WTA no. 429) had only been on court a few hours earlier, she showed no signs of fatigue - instead, she started like a shot and quickly pulled away to 3:0. Paszek made it 1:3, but didn't get a single break point in the first round. The logical result after 28 minutes: 6:1 for the Frenchwoman.

Tie-break to level the set
However, anyone expecting the Vorarlberg native to lose outright underestimated the fighting spirit of the former world number 26, as Tamira hit back in the second set. With her first break chance of the match, she made it 3:1, but Andrianjafitrimo managed to break back immediately and then again to take a 4:3 lead. This was followed by a "break orgy" that finally ended in a tie-break, in which Paszek came out on top 7:5. The second set alone lasted 1:27 hours.

Jump in the rankings
When the two-time Wimbledon quarter-finalist (2011, 2012) was able to take her French opponent's serve in a hard-fought first game in the deciding set and serve out a 2-0 lead, Paszek seemed to have finally turned the match around. But that was absolutely not the case, as Andrianjafitrimo did not allow the Vorarlberg player a single game and left the court as the 6:1, 6:7 (5) 6:2 winner after 169 minutes of play. Despite her elimination, Tamira should improve her WTA ranking by around 30 positions.