Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova dumps Vera Dushevina to move ahead at Internazionali BNL d’Italia
Sixteenth seeded Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova trashed her fellow countrywoman Vera Dushevina in straight sets on Wednesday. She registered a 7-5, 6-4 win over the 24-year-old Dushevina to advance into the third round of the
2011 Internazionali BNL d’Italia, a WTA Premier 5 event held in Rome, Italy.
19-year-old Pavlyuchenkova triumphed over her compatriot, ranked 44 places below her, in one hour and fifty-one minutes to book a third round spot. It was their first meeting and after earning this victory, the higher ranked Russian
took a lead in her head-to-head series by 1-0 against Dushevina.
The teenager is in mediocre form this season so far. Although she won the title at Monterrey, her form dipped afterwards. She rose up once again as she made a quarter-final berth at Madrid last week. In her opening round match,
she dumped South African qualifier Chanelle Scheepers in the first round in straight sets.
The youngster thundered into the opening set and broke Dushevina’s serve in the very first game. She exchanged three games in the first eight games to square the scores at 4-4. After this, Pavlyuchenkova held her remaining serves
plausibly and broke her rival’s serve again in the eleventh game to seal the set by winning seven games to five.
She produced a better first serve share of 80 percent as compared to Dushevina’s 59 percent and earned a convincing 50 percent win on it. Pavlyuchenkova failed to save three breakpoint faced and converted four out of twelve breakpoint
opportunities to her advantage.
The booming teenager carried her winning ways into the second set and held her opening serve spectacularly. She then found the craving break in the third game and took the lead. Pavlyuchenkova lost her serve later on but broke
her fellow countrywoman’s serve again in the end to clinch with a 6-4 win.
The younger Russian produced a similar first serve share of 80 percent but registered an impressive 75 percent win on it.
A former top forty player, Dushevina hasn’t had much progress this season and showed no enthusiasm at Foro Italico as well. Despite earning a breadstick in her opening round match against Japanese Ayumi Morita, she displayed dismal
performance in this match. The elder one converted all four breakpoint opportunities to her advantage and saved ten breakpoints faced but it wasn’t enough.
Pavlyuchenkova will next face third seeded Belarusian Victoria Azarenka who is in her top form as well as she recently won two titles before entering this tournament. She cruised into this third round spot after earning a breadstick
against Italian Sara Errani in her opening round match.
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