Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova defeats Caroline Wozniacki in the quarters - Western and Southern Open 2012
World number 23, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, dumped the former world number one, Caroline Wozniacki, to reach the quarter-final stage of the Western and Southern Open on the eve of Friday. She ousted the eighth ranked Dane in straight
sets 6-4, 6-4 and booked a late night match with the Czech superstar, Petra Kvitova.
It was the seventh face-off between the two players and five of them were won by the Dane, who was expected to beat the 23rd ranked Russian but the scenario completely changed at the hard courts of Ohio. The rain delayed
match that started on Thursday was already led by the Russian superstar by one set. She won the opening battle courtesy a couple of late breakpoints that drowned the Dane who was leading the set throughout.
Pavlyuchenkova continued to impress on the return day and won a crucial breakpoints; saved six of them to deny her rival of any sort of comeback. It was a complete through performance from someone who was hardly managing to win
anything in the recent past.
All in all, total stats shows that Wozniacki did had her chances but didn’t take them that proved to her downfall. She lost the lost the match with a difference of just nine points and squandered 11 breakpoints altogether. It was
something pretty uncharacteristic of the Dane who usually takes her opportunities.
Pavlyuchenkova was lucky at times as a couple of breakpoints were saved by her with the help of the net; ball hitting the top of the net and tipping over in the Dane’s court. However, she was good enough to deserve the triumph.
The match was ended in an hour and 42 minutes that also included the rain-interrupted delays happened on Thursday.
Later in the day, the tired legs of the 21-year-old Russian were unable to handle the onslaught of the fresh Czech star, Petra Kvitova, who won the opening set 6-3 but struggled to hold on to the lead in the second set and was
forced to dig deep in the tie-breaker to book a semi-final spot.
Kvitova faces Angelique Kerber in the semi-final.
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