Cibulkova/Husarova stun Huber/Raymond to reach quarters – Mutua Madrid Open 2012
Slovakian wildcard entrants, Dominika Cibulkova and Janette Husarova, surprised everyone after upsetting the top seeded Americans, Liezel Huber and Lisa Raymond, in three sets at the Mutua Madrid Open 2012 on Tuesday. They summed up a 4-6, 7-6(6), 15-13
victory against the Americans to secure a place in the final eight at this WTA (Women’s Tennis Association) Premier Mandatory event taking place in Madrid, Spain.
Cibulkova and Husarova entered this tournament after standing on a 0-6 win-loss record dating back to 2007. However, they made a superb start at Park Manzanares and overpowered Natalie Grandin and Vladimira Uhlirova in three sets to set-up this epic encounter.
The Slovaks took down Huber and Raymond in their first meeting in almost two hours.
The highest ranked junction at this tournament, Huber and Raymond high-spiritedly entered Park Manzanares and drew the first blood in the third game to take a 2-1 lead. Despite losing their edge in the very next game, the Americans capitalised on another
break opportunity in the fifth game and maintained their lead. They swiped in remaining serves and sealed the opener by winning six games to four.
The wildcards on the other end carried their drastic ways in the proceeding set and lost their serve in the opening game to fall at 0-2. However, they remained calm and not only snatched their break back in the eighth game but exchanged another serve break
to impose a tie-breaker. Cibulkova and Husarova edged past their rivals in it and clinched the equaliser with a 7-6(6) score line.
Both teams played their best in the Super tie-breaker but the Slovaks re-gained their early form and pulled out the decider with a 15-13 score line.
All in all, Cibulkova and Husarova fully capitalised on five double faults their opponents committed and capitalised on three out of eight break chances to earn the fame. They also formulated a better first serve share of 83 per cent as compared to their
rivals’ 61 per cent and amazingly clicked 36 out of 68 points on it.
Next challenge for the wildcards is the winner of the match between fifth seeded Italians, Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci, and the Russian-Czech duo, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Lucie Safarova.
The Argentinean duo, Gisela Dulko and Paola Suarez, will accompany the Slovaks in the quarter-finals. They stomped over the German-Chinese junction, Anna-Lena Groenefeld and Shuai Zhang, in straight sets in one hour and 13 minutes to progress at this blue
clay court tournament.
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