Isabella Shinikova has reached the doubles quarterfinals at the WTA 125 hard-court tennis tournament in Luanda, Angola, which offers a prize fund of $115,000.
The Bulgarian and Kristina Kroyter (Russia) defeated Germany’s Laura Bonner and Franziska Schidat 6-4, 6-3 after 76 minutes of play.
Shinikova and Kroyter took a 3-0 lead at the start of the match, but allowed their opponents to turn it around and go 4-3 ahead. However, after winning three consecutive games, they closed out the first set 6-4. In the second set, they took a 5-1 lead and comfortably won the match 6-3.
For a place in the semifinals, Shinikova and Kroyter will face the winners of the match between third seeds Ana Sofia Sanchez (Mexico) and Ksenia Zaytseva (Russia) and Lamies Al Hussein Abdel Aziz and Gian Ibrahim (Egypt).
Yesterday, Shinikova also convincingly reached the second round of the singles tournament. The 35-year-old Bulgarian thrashed France’s Dune Veso 6-0, 6-1, and her next opponent will be Gina Feistel (Poland). With her victory, the Bulgarian earned 15 points for the world rankings, in which she is currently ranked 438th.