Anastasia Pivovarova reaches the quarterfinals at the 2011 Grand Prix De SAR
Russian tennis player Anastasia Pivovarova upset second seed Yaroslava Shvedova of Kazakhstan 6-2, 7-6 (5) on Thursday to reach the quarterfinals at the 2011 Grand Prix SAR La Princesse Lalla Meryem in Morocco.
The 20-year-old Pivovarova has struggled to achieve considerable results on the Women’s Tennis Association tour since the start of this season. She was thrashed out in the first round of her WTA tournament of the year in Brisbane.
At the year’s first Grand Slam tournament, Australian Open she fell in the qualifying round. Memphis, Andalucia Tennis Experience, BNP Paribas Open and Sony Ericson Open also resulted in disappointment for the Pivovarova.
However, here in her opening match at the red clay courts of Fes, she raised the level of her game and came up with a special performance to stun second seed Shvedova. Pivovarova will be hoping to continue her impressive form in
her next matches at the WTA tournament as she bids for first WTA title of her career. Her quarterfinal opponent will be former world number one Dinara Safina who eased past American Jill Craybas 6-1, 6-0.
Although Pivovarova is in great touch, she will have to up her game play considerably if she wants to stand a chance against Safina. Top seeded at the tournament, Safina on the other hand will be expecting an easy victory against
world number 116 Pivovarova.
Shvedova looked a bit out of sorts as the match started. She made a number of unforced errors early in the opening set and presented ample chances to Pivovarova to dictate terms. Pivovarova took complete advantage of weaknesses
in her opponent’s game and pocketed the opener dropping only a couple of games. The Russian used her powerful backhand shot to great effect and earned crucial points.
Shvedova made a strong come back in the following set and created a lot of problems for Pivovarova who looked on course to an easy victory. After both contestants exchanged breaks the set went into the tie-breaker. The Kazakhstani
tennis-pro put up brave fight in the tie-breaker and saved few match points as well. However she couldn’t stop the Russian challenger from earning a well deserved victory in a match that lasted for only 1 hour and 35 minutes.
Pivovarova served with accuracy and achieved an impressive 84 per cent first serve conversion. She also dominated the serve return department with 44 per cent points. Shvedova on the other hand made 6 double faults in the match
which allowed Pivovarova to play her natural game freely.
Pivovarova defeated local Fatima Zahrae El Allami comfortably in her opening match at the tournament 6-3, 7-6. The Russian certainly carried over the winning momentum into this game as she displayed some crafty tennis throughout
the match.
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