Not a bad draw, the Slovak has been in the top 250 but her form hasn't been particularly great this year. Not been past rd2 of a 25K and only the semis of one 10K. She has beaten both Katie O'Brien (6-3, 6-4 on clay) and Amanda Keen (6-4, 6-0 on slow hard) earlier this year.
They've played once before, in rd2 of this tournament back in 2004 with Tvaroskova winning 67(4) 64 64.
had a slow start, winning just 2/9 second serve points in the first set and the Slovak took both her two break points. She upped her level in the 2nd, serving better and starting to compete more with Tvaraskova in the baseline rallies. The players exchanged breaks early in the set but it was Karen who broke again at the business end to set up a decider.
In the 3rd, Karen was made to pay for missed chances, failing to take any of her 5 break points. If she'd converted just one, it could have been a different story. As it was, Tvaraskova took 2/5 break points to book her place in rd2.
Karen played a decent match today, the serve got better throughout the match and was in the 60%s in the 3rd. She's capable of beating these type of opponents on any surface, hopefully she can start to turn these good performances into points in the near future. She now heads to Spain for a 25K next week, she'll be in qualies.
