Qualifier King Eliminated in First Round

American Qualifier Vania King fell in Finland’s Emma Laine, 6-4, 6-2, in the first round of the Acura Classic, but it wasn’t without a fight.

Serving to stay in the first set at 4-5, the 17-year-old King hit a critical double fault and when on to lose the game and the set, which took 59 minutes.

In the second set, King lost her serve twice and fell behind 5-2 as Laine served for the match. Staring at defeat, King hung tough and extended Laine to a 20-point game which featured seven deuce points, five break points and four match points.

As the Stadium Crowd cheered for King to break Laine’s serve, King slammed a crosscourt backhand service return winner to fight off the third match point and get back to deuce.
However Laine won the next two points to serve out the match and advance to the second round.

• Laine is ranked 63 in the world.
• Laine advances to the second round where she will play the winner of the match between Russian Elena Vesnina and 10th seeded Anna-Lena Groenefeld of Germany.
• Laine is making her Acura Classic debut.
• King was making her Acura Classic debut.
• King recently represented the United States in Fed Cup play, where she lost to Belgium’s Kim Clijsters in singles and teamed with Jill Craybas to win the doubles point.
• King is ranked 78 in the world.
• King began playing tennis at age 4.
• King’s brother Phillip also plays professional tennis.
• King’s hobbies include singing, reading and cycling.

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