Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova defeats Valeria Solovieva in the 1st round – Baku Cup 2011
Tuesday saw the continuation of the first round of the Baku Cup 2011; the two Russian compatriots contesting each other were Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Valeria Solovieva. They battled it out on acrylic rukort hard courts
at the Baku Tennis Academy, Baku, Azerbaijan. Anastasia won the match by fortuity 7-5, 6-4.
Meeting for the first time, the first set of the match saw; both the players perform very poorly and although Anastasia had smashed two aces, and saved seventy three percent of her break points, along with winning fifty percent
of her break points, she served poorly, and had a shameful accuracy as she committed sixteen double faults and hit a meagre forty seven percent of the first serves in the opening set. While her opponent only faltered at her accuracy once and managed to hit
a grand eighty five percent of the first serves, she still lost the match because she was not able win eight of the break point opportunities that presented to her. Hence, when all was said and done, Anastasia won the set by a mere four percent more in her
total set points than her opponents and hence won 7-5
Anastasia opened the second set with wobbly hands and struck another nine double faults. One would’ve expected the girl to lose but her luck was not giving up on her and she managed to win seventy two percent of her first serve
points along with a mediocre return. Although her opponent (Valeria) only saw two unforced errors she was not able to save four of her break points and was only able to win three break points. Valeria had great style and technique and could’ve won the match
if only her defence wouldn’t have given way. However, luck was on Anastasia’s side and she knew she had to push a little harder in order to get this set and take the lead 2-0, which eventually she did manage to and won the set 6-4.
Summing it up; the match was a drag between both the players and although Anastasia won it was only because of chance as her opponent had better serve points and a better return game. Across the board; Anastasia’s stats read as;
she had aced four times, struck a horrific twenty five double faults, and won with only eight more points than her opponents in the total match.
The 20-year-old Russian will now be facing her compatriot Elena Bovina in the second round of the Baku Cup 2011.
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