Filipina Cabrera nails 1st Australian Open 2nd round berth

February 12 ------ After 3 years of joining the Australian Open, Fil-Aussie Lizette Cabrera advances to the 2nd round with partner Maddison Inglis in gritty fashion. Filipino-Australian Lizette Cabrera and Australian partner Maddison Inglis pulled off a gritty escape in their 2021 Australian Open doubles opener on Thursday, February 11 at Court 5 of Melbourne Park. Cabrera and Inglis outlasted the tandem of Renata Voracova of Czech Republic and China's Wang Yafan, 7-6 (7-3), 4-6, 7-6 (12-10) to advance to the 2nd round of the doubles tournament in a match that lasted 3 hours and 4 minutes. This is Cabrera's first 2nd round appearance in a Grand Slam since she started playing in the main draw in 2017.

Cabrera and Inglis, who have been training together, staged a comeback in the opening set as they rallied from a 2-4 deficit to equalize at 4-4. Although they were a game away from taking the opening frame at 5-4, the Voracova-Wang pair forced an extended set before the home bets scored 4 of the last 5 games to gain the 1st set advantage. The back-and-forth action continued in the 2nd set as both pairs held their serves. But Cabrera and Inglis yielded back-to-back errors, allowing Voracova and Wang to convert set point and bring the match to a decider.

Though the Australian duo broke serve right in the opening game, Voracova and Wang stunned them when they converted a break point to tie the game at 3-3. The stalemate continued on as the mixed nationality tandem brought the game to a tie break. Cabrera and Inglis' chances later looked bleak, but they rallied from a 3-7 deficit to finally take the match with a 12-10 tie break score.

Cabrera was booted out of the singles tournament last Monday, February 8 when world No. 2 Simona Halep overpowered her on opening day. A full-blooded Filipino who grew up in Australia, Cabrera started playing tennis at the age of 4, and was exposed to a variety of sports such as golf and inter-school sports, but decided to focus on tennis at the age of 9. In order to fund her tennis career, her parents Ronnie from Pampanga and Dolly from Basilan – who moved to Australia in their early 20s – worked in a slaughterhouse. Now, the Filipino-Australian is based in Brisbane for her tennis career and managed to practice with world No. 1 Ashleigh Barty and other top Australian tennis players like Inglis, Kim Birrell and Priscilla Hon.

Source: rappler.com