Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova plonks Bojana Jovanovski in opening round – Citi Open 2012
Top seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova toppled the Serbian competitor, Bojana Jovanovski, in straight sets at the Citi Open 2012 on Tuesday. She summed up a 6-4, 6-3 victory against the 20-year-old to book a spot in the second round at this WTA (Women’s Tennis
Association) International-level tournament taking place in Washington D.C, United States.
The highest ranked challenger of this tournament, Pavlyuchenkova showed brilliant tennis skills to ease past the world number 68 in their third meeting. After recording the victory in one hour and 13 minutes, the Russian not only avenged her loss at the
AEGON International in Eastbourne lasts season but also took lead in the head-to-head series by 2-1 against Jovanovski.
Pavlyuchenkova made a strong entry at the William H.G. FitzGerald Tennis Center. She got the critical break in the third game and took a 2-1 lead. She lost her serve in the very next game but capitalised on another break chance to go 3-2 up. Despite levelling
the scores again in the sixth game, the Russian got the breakthrough in the ninth game and clicked the opener by winning six games to four.
Ranked 28th in the WTA (Women’s Tennis Association) Premier Rankings, Pavlyuchenkova kept momentum rolling in the follow-up set and broke her rival’s serve in the third game to take a 2-1 lead. Apart from losing her edge in the very next game,
the Russian rising star broke again and took the upper hand. She held her remaining serves with conviction and cashed in another break chance in the last game, eventually sealing the set with a 6-3 success.
Overall, Pavlyuchenkova clobbered a slightly lower first serve share but impressively marked 23 out of 37 points on it.
The 21-year-old is disappointed for not qualifying at Olympics but is fully focused on winning her maiden year-to-date title at this hard court event. She stated:
“Because I’m here, of course, I’m 200 percent in this tournament and I’m happy to be here. I’m happy to have the opportunity to play another tournament while others play in the Olympics, so at least I’m not on holiday or just watching them play and win matches.
Like this, I can do it myself. But definitely, of course, I’m a little disappointed because the Olympics is a very special event and everybody wants to play there.”
Next in line for the top seed is the Hungarian contestant, Melinda Czink, who trashed Russia’s Anna Chakvetadze in straight sets to set up this battle.
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