Local hero Kristin Kuuba is ready for the quarter-finals in Yonex Estonian International 2018

The two players, who are seeded for a spot in the final in women’s singles, Ksenia Polikarpova (1) and Mariya Mitsova (2) are both ready for the quarter-finals, but it isn’t the performance of the two top seeded players that draws the attention to women’s singles category on the second day of Yonex Estonian International.

One of the biggest surprises on Friday were delivered by Kristin Kuuba, who is playing on home ground in Estonia. In her first match of the day she beat Dutch Gayle Mahulette, who was seeded four in the tournament, 21-9 10-21 23-21.

See also: Mitsova: I have to handle the pressure 

- I am very happy right now. The first-round win against the Dutch was very good. The first game was very good, in the second I was tired, but in the third, it was my game again, Kuuba says.

- I am surprised, I could take that one. She is ranked much higher than me, so that victory makes me happy, Kuuba adds. 

Quarter-final is a good result
In the second round the Estonian, who is ranked 131 in the World, beat French Léonice Huet 21-19 21-10 and clinched the spot in the quarter-finals.

- I didn’t know her before the match, but the second game was especially good. I was attacking all the time, and that was good, Kuuba says.

See also: Good start for home crowd favourite

- Now I am just looking forward to the quarter-final. It is a very good result for me.

More surprises
Also in women’s singles, Russian Anastasiia Semenova took a big victory in her first match of the day beating third seed Kate Foo Kune from Mauritius 14-21 21-15 21-10. After winning the second-round match against fellow Russian Viktoriia Vorobeva, Semenova is also ready for the quarter-finals.

Turk Emre Lale also delivered a surprise in men’s singles category beating third seed Eetu Heino from Finland. In a three games thriller Lale clinched the spot in the quarter-finals beating Heino 23-21 18-21 24-22.

See also: All Friday’s results from Yonex Estonian International 2018