Spaniard survives early scare

12 January 2010, by Hobart International Tennis

Top seed Anabel Medina Garrigues is through to the quarterfinals at the Moorilla Hobart International after knocking out qualifier Alla Kudryavtseva.

The Spaniard lost the first set but came back strong in the second and third sets to win 3-6 6-3 6-1.

Medina Garrigues will now face eight seed Gisela Dulko on Thursday.

The pair has played once in 2006 with Medina Garrigues taking out the match in three sets.

The newest Australian doubles pairing of the summer Alicia Molik and Jelena Dokic missed out on a successful debut losing to Chinese Taipei’s Yung-Jan Chan and Romanian Monica Niculescu 7-6(4) 6-7(5) [10-2].

The Australian glamour pair, who last combined as aspiring juniors, lost their first five games before finding their rhythm and reeling off the next five games straight.

Dokic conceded it was rare doubles outing for here since her comeback. 

“It was good … I didn’t know what to do at the beginning, we didn’t combine so well but we got better. If we played a few more matches I think we could be really good, but it was a nice atmosphere,” she said.

Molik was unsure whether both players’ schedules would allow them many opportunities to again pair up this year.

“There’s a chance we might line-up in certain tournaments but first things first we’ll continue our preparations here for the Australian Open.”