Andrea Petkovic defeats Carla Suarez Navarro in 4th round – US Open 2011
The fourth round of US Open saw many unfamiliar names and faces but number 10 seed Andrea Petkovic did what she is best at doing which is reaching the quarter final. Andrea Petkovic was the only player to reach the quarter finals
of the other two Grand Slams this year namely; Austrlian Open, and French Open, unfortunately at Wimbledon she lost to Ksenia Pervak in the third round this year.
Duelling on Louis Armstrong Stadium of the USTA Billie Jean King National Center the two players put up a great fight. However, not wanting to drop to a lower rank Petkovic was the stronger opponent against Carla Suarez Navarro
and finally she won the match in straight sets of 6-1, 64.
It seemed as if history was repeating itself as both the players had previously battled it out on hard courts of the Australian Open in 2010, where Navarro had beaten Petkovic with a 6-1, 6-4. Availing the chance presented to her
by fate, the number 10 seed (Petkovic) outshone her Spanish rival.
Opening the first game of the set was German Petkovic, who struck an ace at 40-30 and not only did she clog the first game but also got an upper hand. Navarro was only able to win one game on her serve in the second game and tied
the score at 1-1. After that, it was Petkovic who held her serve in the third agme and in the fourth broke Navarro for the first time to take the lead at 3-1. She held the lead and her serve in the fifth game and by the sixth broke her adversary for the last
time to take the lead at 5-1, she was now serving for a set point in the sixth game on her serve and eventually won the opening set.
Navarro was unable to utilize the 5 break point opportunities and had lost the set with almost twice as many points as her German rival.
As Petkovic asserted the first set, she planned to do the same in the second set and although, she won the second set, she faced a strong defence from Navarro.
This time it was Navarro who was opening the set and in the first three games both players won on their serves but in the fourth Navarro was first to break Petkovic and took the lead at 3-1. Being two games down was not going to
cut it for Petkovic and she broke back in the fifth game and as she held her serve in the sixth, she jumped back into the game by equalizing the score at 3-3. The two again won on alternate serves in the seventh and eighth game, this time levelling the score
at 4-4. Unable to hold her serve Navarro was broken by Petkovic for the second time in the set. As the crowd cheered for Petkovic she was able to hold her serve and in the tenth game won the set, restricting her opponent to only 4 games.
Even though, both the players had an equal to number of unforced errors, Petkovic had taken the cake as she was able to capitalize on one extra break point and was able to ease into the quarter final by achieving 5 more points
than her Spanish opponent.
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