Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova beats Chanelle Scheepers in opening round of Internazionali BNL d’Italia
World number 16, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia, displayed true class to outplay 67th ranked Chanelle Scheepers of South Africa in the first round clash of the Internazionali BNL d’Italia on Tuesday. She concluded
her straight sets 6-3, 7-5 victory in one hour and twenty six minutes to make it to the second round of the $2,050,000 WTA (Women’s Tennis Association) clay-court tournament.
The contest was played at Foro Italico in Rome, Italy, with the Russian competitor exhibiting an awesome display of professional tennis skills. She maintained her winning record against Scheepers, whom she has already defeated
at the French Open qualifiers in 2008. Pavlyuchenkova registered her 22nd victory of the running WTA season at Rome in addition to which she now leads the head-to-head record against the South African by 2-0.
The 19-year-old Russian had a blistering start to the contest but lost her way in the second round to toil a bit harder. Pavlyuchenkova made a tremendous recovery from a deficit of three games in the second set to dispose of the
tenacious South African from the competition.
“I was thinking the set was gone, so I just relaxed and calmed down, and I think that turned into the right mentality,” Pavlyuchenkova told after winning the match, “I started to focus on every point and kept on playing. It worked
in the end.”
After an easy loss in the opening set, the determined South African gave a tough time to her opponent and made her work hard for victory. The South African had a sloppy start to the opener and failed to pose sufficient resistance
to Pavlyuchenkova. Scheepers did break the Russian serve twice in the opening set but dropped her own serve on three different occasions to let her opponent take the game away from her.
Pavlyuchenkova clinched 30 of total 51 points being played in the game to reach set point at 5-3. Her third serve break of the game marked an end to the set number one at 6-3, giving the Russian a 1-0 lead in the contest.
Scheepers made a strong comeback in the following set and raced to a 4-1 lead in no time. The strong Russian competitor held her nerve in the intense pressure situation and stung three serve breaks to rocket away to match point
at 6-5. Pavlyuchenkova nabbed the first match point she received and sealed the contest at 7-5, advancing to the second round of the Internazionali BNL d’Italia.
Pavlyuchenkova will be competing against her fellow compatriot, Vera Dushevina in the second round at Rome. Dushevina wiped out Ayumi Morita of Japan 6-3, 6-1, in the opening round of the tournament.
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