Angelique Kerber vs. Tamira Paszek: Final preview – AEGON International 2012
German tennis sensation, Angelique Kerber, has continued with her onslaught of the season and had made it into the title match of the AEGON International after her thumping victory in the semis. She will face the surprise candidate from Austria, Tamira Paszek, in the final of the grass-court event in Eastbourne, the United Kingdom.
The highly anticipated contest will be featured at the Devonshire Park Lawn Tennis Club on Saturday afternoon, with the winner of the brawl lifting gold at the Wimbledon warm-up event.
AEGON International has been the tournament of upsets so far and a number of big guns has been silenced by the inferior-ranked contestants in the initial rounds. Paszek is one of the underdog contenders who have driven the hot favourite seeded opponents out of the tournament. She beat all the odds to reach her first WTA (Women’s Tennis Association) final of the running season and is bidding highly to capture her third championship title.
The Austrian youngster was having a 2-13 record prior to coming at Eastbourne and was having a pathetic form this season. Probably that was the reason her opponents took her lightly and it proved extremely taxing for them later on. The 59th ranked Austrian came under the lime light when she stunned the eighth seeded Slovak veteran, Daniela Hantuchova, in the second round draw. She then went on to take down the Bulgarian number one, Tsvetana Pironkova in the quarter-finals before facing the fourth seeded French powerhouse, Marion Bartoli, in the semis. Everyone was rating Bartoli as the hot favourite for winning the clash but Paszek pulled out an absolute stunner to recover from being a set down in the match and seal victory over the world number nine at 4-6, 7-5, 6-4.
"Coming into Eastbourne I didn't have a lot of confidence I'd say," Paszek commented after her semi-final victory. "I had a lot of injuries. For the first time in a while I was able to practice two weeks continuously during Strasbourg and French Open, and I knew I had to keep working and do my job, that it wouldn't come in a day or two. Now I've been working a lot on my fitness, my game, different kinds of things. It's just lovely to be back on court and healthy and just winning matches."
While the tennis fans kept surprised at the falls of top seeded opponents out of the tournament, the world number eight, Kerber, cruised through her encounters to reach the final of the tournament in style. The fifth seeded German had no troubles in dumping the unseeded Czech opponent, Klara Zakopalova, in straight sets, 6-0, 6-3, in the round of four. Kerber is riding 40-11 winning record, the most matches won by a female tennis player this season and is eyeing for her third WTA title this year. Her rise to the Top-10 is nothing less than a dream come true, as she was ranked at number 32 at the beginning of the professional circuit. Kerber is no doubt the hot favourite for winning the AEGON International title but she must kept her eyes open for the crafty game play of Paszek.
The trend in the tournament so far has been extremely abnormal and the tennis fans might witness yet another shocker in the final showdown. However, with her current sublime form and winning record, Kerber is expected to win the title in straight sets.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are the writer's own and in no way represent Bettor.com's official editorial policy.
Tags: