Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova ousts Vera Dushevina in the first round – New Haven Open 2011
An excellent start for the world number 18, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia, at New Haven Open at Yale, as she defeated her fellow compatriot, 72nd ranked Vera Dushevina, in the opening round clash on Monday afternoon.
The contest was staged on the hard courts of the Cullman-Heyman Tennis Center in New Haven, Connecticut, United States, with Pavlyuchenkova disposing off the Russian qualifier after a stiff contest. Seeded at number eight in the
tournament, 18-year-old Pavlyuchenkova took two hours and twenty minutes of play to overcome her fellow compatriot in three sets, 3-6, 6-4, 6-3, to make a place in the second round of the WTA (Women’s Tennis Association) premier Series event.
It was the 31st victory for Pavlyuchenkova in the running WTA season and the second one against Dushevina in singles encounter. The two women went one-on-one earlier this year at Rome, where the 18-year-old Russian registered
a straight sets victory against Dushevina in the round of 32 of the tournament. Monday’s victory for Pavlyuchenkova extended her head-to-head lead against her fellow Russian by 2-0 and grants her a place in the second round to compete for the quarter-finals.
Pavlyuchenkova was off to a flying start in the opening set, breaking her opponent’s serve in the very first game of the match to lead 2-0. The other Russian replied with a break point conversion in the next game and another strike
from Dushevina in the sixth game closed out the first set at 6-3, giving her early lead in the matchup.
The eighth seeded Russian suffered a serve break in the first game of the following set but she took very less time to regroup and nailed two consecutive break point conversions later in the set to make her way back in the game.
Pavlyuchenkova closed out the second set at 6-4 to level the matchup with one set a piece and continued with her winning momentum in the next set as well.
The final set was stuffed with high quality tennis action from both players, who were toiling extremely hard to remain alive in the competition. A total of five break points were exchanged from both ends, with three to Pavlyuchenkova’s
name, but four crucial double faults from Dushevina wore her out in the game. Pavlyuchenkova closed out victory at 6-3, getting through to the second round of the tournament to face the unseeded Italian competitor, Roberta Vinci, for a place in the quarter-finals.
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