Bulgaria's national player for the "Billie Jean King Cup" Lia Karatancheva was knocked out in the first round of singles at the clay tennis tournament in Bucharest with a prize pool of 60 thousand dollars.
Karatancheva suffered a setback and lost to Russian Maria Timofeeva 6:2, 4:6, 1:6 in 2:24 hours.
The Bulgarian led 5:1 on her way to victory in the first set. She managed to make up for a deficit from 2:4 to 4:4 in the second part, but lost the next two games and the Russian tied. The national player allowed three breaks in the third set and after 1:6 was eliminated from the tournament.
Before this match, Karatancheva achieved two victories in the qualifications.
Viktoria Tomova will also play in doubles at the British Open Tennis Championship.
The first racket of Bulgaria will partner with the ethnic Croat Ajla Tomljanovic representing Australia.
At the start of the Wimbledon doubles, they will face Eriko Hozumi (Japan) and Aldila Sduzhiadi (Indonesia).
Tomova and Tomljanovic also played together at the United States Open last year. Then they lost in the first round to the duos of Petra Martic (Croatia) and Shelby Rogers (USA) with 0:6, 7:5, 2:6.
The 30-year-old Sofia player's best achievement in the duos is reaching the third round of “Roland Garros“ this season in tandem with the Slovak Rebecca Sramkova. In Paris, they were stopped by Hozumi and Ulrika Eikeri from Norway after 3:6, 2:6.
On Wednesday, Victoria will play singles against the British Sonay Kartal in a second-round match.