Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova outsmarts Francesca Schiavone in 4th round – US Open 2011
It wasn’t the first upset victory for seventeen seeded Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova at the US Open 2011. She beat 11th seed Jelena Jankovic in the third round before doing away with number 7 seeded Francesca Schiavone. As
both the players took up the gauntlet to secure a berth in the quarter final, Pavlyuchenkova played a dramatic game bouncing back from a set down with a 5-7, 6-3, 6-4 score, Monday morning.
It was the second time that Pavlyuchenkova beat Francesca Schiavone in their professional careers. Standing at 3-1 in the head-to-head it came as an unexpected but surprisingly pleasant match, when the Russian was finally able
to restore her dignity as she conquered her opponent in three sets.
Schiavone won the toss and opened the score board to 1-0 by smashing 2 successive aces at 30-30, she then went on to break Pavlyuchenkova in the second game but the Russian (Pavlyuchenkova) was not to give up easily as she broke
back in the third and evened out of the score at 2-2 in the fourth round. In the fifth and the sixth game both the players broke each other and in the seventh Schiavone took the lead after winning on her serve. In the eighth game Pavlyuchenkova held her serve
and balanced out the score at 4-4 again. In the ninth and tenth game again the two broke each other to even the score at 5-5 but in the sixth Schiavone held her serve and in the twelfth game broke her for the last and final time to serve the set at 7-5.
During the second set Pavlyuchenkova broke her opponent in the first game to open the score card at 1-0 but Schiavone broke back to equalize the score at 1-1. Pavlyuchenkova again broke the Italian in the third game and secured
her lead by holding her serve in the fourth game. Breaking each other in the fifth and the sixth game Schiavone held her serve in the seventh but was still unable to even out the score. Winning on her serve the Russian broke her opponent for the last time
in the ninth game and restricted her adversary to only 3 games in the second set.
By the end of the second set the players had bagged a set each; the third set was the deciding factor and even though, it was a long, tough match between the two, Pavlyuchenkova was finally able to remain standing.
The third set was a marathon play between the two extremely competitive players. Although, Schiavone had 12 winners, and 2 aces, she was unable to win the third set because of more unforced errors committed and fewer break point
opportunities availed. With a difference of only five points Pavlyuchenkova was just able to secure a berth in the quarterfinal, where she will be facing the 13 time Grand Slam winner Serena Williams.
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