Andrea Petkovic battles past Maria Kirilenko to advance into the last eight – French Open 2011
Fifteenth seeded German Andrea Petkovic rallied past Russian Maria Kirilenko in a three set nail biter match to advance into the quarter-finals of the Roland Garros 2011, second of the four Grand Slam event held in Paris, France
on Monday. She lost her way in the second set but outshined again in the decider to register a 6-2, 2-6, 6-4 win against the 24-year-old Russian.
Ranked 12th in the Sony Ericsson WTA Premier rankings, Petkovic maintained her winning ways against the Russian, ranked 15 places below her, to book a last eight spot. She had faced Kirilenko two times before on clay
this year i.e. at Strasbourg and Rome where the German earned straight sets victories. However, in this match, she lost her concentration in the second set which she lost but overpowered Kirilenko in three sets to advance.
After Kirilenko held her serve in the first game of the opening set, 24-year-old German went on savage mode to reel off next four games in a row. She lost her serve in the sixth game but broke the Russian’s serve again in the very
next game for the third time to eventually bag the set by winning six games to two.
Kirilenko on the other side of net gave tough time to the German and took every game to a deuce. She even earned a coveted break but it wasn’t enough since she kept her serve once and lost the set in three-quarter of an hour.
The German produced a lower first serve share of 71 percent as compared to Kirilenko’s 82 percent but earned an impressive 64 percent win on it. She also clobbered many unforced errors i.e. 10 to Russian’s 7 but converted three
out of four breakpoint opportunities to her advantage to help win comfortably.
The Russian, who hasn’t had much progress this season but rose her level of game earlier this month after make a quarter-final berth at Strasburg, went for treatment on her right hand after the set. The ointment seemed to work
as she entered the second set as a different person. Kirilenko unleashed a flurry of ground strokes to win the first three games in a row. Later she held her remaining serves comfortably and converted the second breakpoint opportunity to her advantage in the
last game to clinch the set with a 6-2 win.
The German got back on track in the final set and sealed in another forty-four minutes with amazing stats. She exchanged two breaks and converted another breakpoint opportunity to her advantage in the ninth game to win the set
with a 6-4 score line.
Up next for Petkovic is another Russian, Maria Sharapova who is a former world number one. She recently won the title at Rome and is in awesome form.
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