Alexandra Dulgheru downs Klara Zakopalova; breezes into the quarters at Brussels Ladies Open
Seventh seeded Romanian Alexandra Dulgheru downed Czech Klara Zakopalova by a 6-3, 6-2 score line on Wednesday. She earned a straight set victory over the 29-year-old Czech to advance into the quarter-finals of the 2011 Open de Bruxelles, a WTA Premier event held in Brussels, Belgium.
Dulgheru then raised her level of game in this second round match and trashed the world number 33, Czech in sixty-eight minutes to maintain a perfect winning record in the second meeting against her.
21-year-old Romanian thundered into the opening set and exchanged three breaks early on. She produced a higher first serve share of 66 percent as compared to Czech’s 54 percent and registered an acceptable 42 percent win on it which was much better than Zakopalova’s 20 percent. Dulgheru broke the elder’s serve again in the eighth game to win the set with a 6-3 score line.
She kept her winning ways in the final set and regardless of failing to save both breakpoints faced and clobbering more double faults, Dulgheru converted four out of five breakpoint opportunities to her advantage to seal the set by winning six games to two. The Romanian also produced a lower first serve share as opposed to Czech’s 68 percent earning a meagre 58 percent win on it.
Zakopalova had an awesome start of the season by making a semi-final berth at Hobart. She then suffered a quarter-final curse as she lost in quarter-finals of Doha, Marbella, Estoril and Prague before entering this red clay court event. She faced trouble in the opening round where she overcomes threat from Russian Ksenia Pervak in a three set thriller to reach this spot.
World number 28, Dulgheru had a poor season so far. She progressed at Miami and Marbella where she reached quarter-finals but her for dipped steeply again. The Romanian was standing on a three match losing streak when she entered at Royal Primerose Tennis Club. She re-formed here strategy here and downed Slovene Polona Hercog in troublesome three sets.
Dulgheru will next face second seeded Russian Vera Zvonareva who bested Kazakh qualifier Galina Voskoboeva after bouncing from a set down to seal the deal in two hours and twelve minutes. Currently ranked 3rd in the Sony Ericsson WTA Premier rankings, Zvonareva saved five out of seven breakpoints conceded and converted three out of eleven breakpoint opportunities to her advantage to clinch the match with a 2-6, 6-4, 6-3 victory against the world number 291 Voskoboeva.
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