2010 Commonwealth Bank Tournament of Champions; Highlights from Friday
Daniela Hantuchova and Alisa Kleybanova completed a sweep of seeds at the 2010 Commonwealth Bank Tournament of Champions on Friday, dethroning the contest’s number second and fourth seeds respectively, in straight sets.
Aravane Rezai, who was seeded number two to win the title in Bali, was the first of the seeds to go, falling victim to Alisa in a two setter clash. The final match score was 6-1, 6-2.
Aravane broke serve just on a single occasion however lost her own a whopping six times as her opponent jumped all over her returns.
"The score line makes it look simple, however the clash was very close. There were couple of games with deuces and advantages so it was still a big battle, but I am glad with the way I played. The significant thing for me today
was to smash heavy serves, step into the court and perform well on the major points. That was working well. I believe that is why I was able to triumph with this score line,” Alisa said after her victory on Friday.
Alisa has now defeated Rezai on four occasions in a row on the WTA tour.
Rezai was the only contender in the field who had captured a Premier crown in 2010, taking the prestigious Madrid crown a few days before the French Open, getting the better of Jelena Jankovic, Justine Henin and Venus Williams
on her way.
The fourth seed Yanina Wickmayer was the next to fall, as she was toppled by Daniela Hantuchova in two sets. The final match score was 6-4, 7-6(5).Yanina did well to come back from a break down on two occasions to push the decisive
set to a tie-break, however at last lost the match with a double fault on match point.
"I thought it was a very high level clash. Yanina was performing very well, as she always does, and again I was proud to keep my winning record against her. It was close at times however I kept my calm and kept going for the right
shots. It is important on this surface to be very tactically smart, and it helped to know I have defeated her in the past,however you still have to perform well on the day. In this championship I have nothing to lose so every victory is great for me,” reflected
Hantuchova after the match.
It was Hantuchova's fourth straight set victory in five clashes with Wickmayer.
In the semi final round, Ana Ivanovic of Serbia will take on Kimiko Date Krumm whereas Kleybanova will meet Hantuchova in Bali. Ana and Date Krumm made their way into the semi final round on Thursday with victories over the third
seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and top seed Li Na respectively. This will be their first ever meeting on the tour.
Kleybanova and Hantuchova, on the other hand are tied in their head to head encounter at 1-1.
Kleybanova, while commenting on her next round opponent said that Daniela is a great contender and she is really looking forward to facing her. Both of them played against each other in San Diego where she was defeated in straight
sets in the end. However, Kleybanova is hopeful that she will win this time and comfortably make her way into the title battle in Bali.
Wickmayer on the other hand will now rest before coming back on the tour and is looking forward to improving her game in order to play well next year.
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