Luksika ready to take on Georges' challenge in Pattaya Open

The 20-year-old, who enjoyed the moment of her life a fortnight ago when she upset world No 6 Kvitova at the Australian Open, has come back to earth and is ready to put in maximum effort against the former world No 15 Georges, now at 102.

“No matter who I play in the draw, seeded or unseeded, it will be tough since all players are very competitive. The fact that I beat the world No 6 doesn’t mean I cannot lose to anyone here,” said Luksika, who fell to No 98 this week despite reaching the round of 64 for the second straight year in the opening major.

“Each player is different. Some like my game and some don’t. My concern is to go out there and give it a fight. I’ve never played Julia before but I know she is a powerful player. She has just come back from injuries but she is still dangerous,” added Luksika, who is free of injury after a back problem hastened her exit in the second-round encounter against Mona Barthel of Germany in Australia.

Meanwhile, in the last qualifying round, fifth seed Alla Kudryavtseva of Russia tamed world junior No 1 Belinda Bencic of Switzerland 6-3 6-3. The match lasted one hour and 30 minutes. The 123rd-ranked player relied on her experience and solid play to outplay the 16-year-old.

The 2013 French Open and Wimbledon girl’s singles champion Bencic lost her serve at the start and tried to counter punch with the Russian, 10 years her senior, from the baseline, but kept making errors. At 5-3, the teenager buried a backhand into the net to lose the first set.

In the second set, Bencic struggled and was broken in the fourth game due to a backhand error. She finally broke back to 3-4 but the more consistent Kudryavtseva blasted a forehand cross-court winner that kissed the line to take a 5-3 lead. The Russian comfortably held the next game, thanks to a slew of mistakes by the teenager.

A day after knocking out Russian top seed Olga Puchkova, Ukraine’s Olga Savchuk proved her upset win was no fluke by winning 6-0 6-2 over seventh seed Sachie Ishizu of Japan in just 41 minutes. The Japanese committed a string of unforced errors including seven double faults.

Second seed Aleksandra Krunic of Serbia also moved towards the main draw after she routed Ying-Ying Duan of China 6-2 7-5 in one hour and 17 minutes.

Meanwhile, three Thai players, Noppawan Lertcheewakarn, Varatchaya Wongteanchai and Nicha Lertpitaksinchai, served free lunch to underprivileged children at the Stop Human Trafficking and Child Abuse Centre organised by PTT on a beach at the Dusit Thani Pattaya Hotel.