Andrea Petkovic vs Nadia Petrova – Quarterfinal Preview: Western & Southern Open 2011
August 19th, 2011 will see the likes of German Andrea Petkovic and Russian Nadia Petrova at the Western and Southern Open 2011. On the hard courts of the Lindner Family Tennis Center in Mason, Ohio, they will take up
the gauntlet for the second time in their career.
Both the players have experienced each other’s style and technique once prior to this event at the US Open 2010, during the first round where Petkovic won by surviving a mid match lapse against Petrova.
Some experts are of the opinion that it is a 50% chance for both the players, as the 29-year-old (Petrova) has more experience than her younger challenger, however, some argue that it isn’t because Petkovic not only holds a better
ranking but this year has had a very good and consistent performance.
The 29-year old, was born on the 8th of June, 1982, Petrova has won ten WTA singles tournaments and one just recently at the Citi Open held in College Park, where she beat Shahar Peer to take home the crown.
This year she contested in nine hard court events out of which she was only able to win at Washington DC against Shahar Peer in straight sets in the final round. Starting off with Brisbane, the 15th seeded, Petrova lost
against Petra Kvitova in the first round. She then moved to the hard courts of Sydney, where she again lost in the first round. However, contesting in the first grand slam of the year, the Australian Open, where she won in opposition to Alicia Molik in the
second round but again in the third saw her defeat at the hands of Ekaterina Makarova.
In France, Paris was yet another defeat and so was Doha where she was outplayed by the world number one Caroline Wozniacki in the second round. At Indian Wells she survived till the third round but in the fourth was murdered by
the Chinese Shuai Peng. During the Miami and Roger’s Cup she saw her loss in the second round.
Even though, she has had a seesaw year, she clogged 18 singles matches and lost 15 out of the 33 played in total. She is not only a good singles player but also an excellent doubles player and has won more doubles matches than
singles. Her singles career high ranking was achieved on the 15th of 2006, when she ranked world number.
Andrea Petkovic is a Serbian born German player who was born on the 9th of September 1987 and is one of the highest ranked German players.
This year she contested in eight hard court events and displayed an extraordinary performance. At Brisbane she reached the final but lost to Petra Kvitova and at the Australian Open she defeated Maria Sharapova in the fourth round
only to lose to Li Na in the quarter final. Miami and Carlsbad events saw Petkovic lose to Maria Sharapova and Agnieszka Radwanska respectively during the semi finals.
She was won 2 singles WTA titles and 8 ITF singles titles; she became a national champion in 2007 and 2009. Moreover she reached her career high singles ranking of world number 10 on the 8th of August 2011.
Petkovic is the stronger player between the two and with a consistent improvement in her games she is expected to easily pass the world number 27.
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