Çağla Büyükakçay, who overcame the second hurdle at the Malaysian Open tournament held on April 14th-20th became the first Turkish player to make it to the singles quarter-finals in a WTA tournament.
Club İstanbul @ ENKA Tennis Academy player Çağla Büyükakçay who competes in tournaments with the support of the Turkish Tennis Federation continues to set new high marks.
In her first game at the Malaysian Open, Büyükakçay was winning 5-3 against her world 83rd rival Kimiko Date-Krumm when her opponent withdrew due to injury. This was the first time in her career Büyükakçay went to the second round in the qualified group of a WTA tournament. In this round, Büyükakçay came up against Slovenian player Tadeja Majeric.
Çağla had played Majeric, who ranks 134th in the category once before, in 2011 and had also won. While the first six games of the set did not see any serves broken, Büyükakçay fell 4-3 behind in the seventh game. Withdrawing the advantage she lent to Majeric in the next game, Çağla did not allow her serve to be broken and was 5-4 ahead when heavy rain caused the game to be paused. Following around an hour’s pause the players returned to court and Çağla broke Majeric’s serve to win the set 6-4.
Majeric began the second set more aggressively and was 2-0 ahead. At this point Çağla got back into swing and won a series of three games to make the score 3-2. In the eight game of the second set Büyükakçay won critically by breaking her opponent’s serve but could not finish off the game from 5-3 during her own serve. During Majeric’s serve, Çağla appeared to be more determined. The national player who ended the game by a backhand strike to the line won 6-4, 6-4 at the end of an hour and forty minutes of play and knocked her Slovenian rival out of the tournament.
This win, which was a first in Turkish tennis history saw Çağla Büyükakçay continue to play in Kuala Lumpur, now the first Turkish player to make it to the singles quarter-finals in a WTA tournament.
BÜYÜKAKÇAY TO FACE DEFENDING CHAMPION
Çağla’s rival in the next round is to be Karolina Pliskova of te Czech Republic. Pliskova, who, like Çağla won her first two rounds without conceding sets is ranked 75th in the WTA and seeded third in the Malaysian Open. Pliskova’s height in the category saw her ranked 51st and she had won her only WTA tournmanent in Malaysia last year. Pliskova, the defending champion in Kuala Lumpur, had played Büyükakçay before two times and won.
