Daniela Hantuchova scampers past Shuai Peng in quarter-finals – Dubai Championships 2012
Slovak tennis icon, Daniela Hantuchova, doubled her head-to-head tally against the 17th ranked Chinese superstar, Shuai Peng, in the second round clash of the Dubai Duty Free Championships on Wednesday. She took an hour and 35 minutes to oust
Peng in straight sets 7-5, 6-2.
It was a stunning performance from the Slovak who has been recently striking her best form on the court. The 21st ranked Slovak had defeated the Chinese in their maiden encounter in 2007 during the second round of Bank of the West Classic, contested
in Stanford. It seems like the psychological advantage helped her to power down Peng in this encounter as well.
The opening set was very boring with no players opening up to their natural blistering style. They were concerned to lose the early break to their respective competitors so the crowd was deprived of an open play at either ends.
No breakpoints were witnessed throughout the first set except the last game. Peng was put under pressure in the sixth game of the match but she managed three breakpoints to register a successful hold. Other than that there was no pressure at all on either
players and they registered easy serve holds.
With scores ticking over 6-5 in favour of the Slovak, it was crucial for Peng to hold her serve to stay in the set but she failed to do so. Suddenly the tables were turned on the superior ranked contestant as she found herself trailing a set down.
The momentum swirled in favour of Hantuchova and she gobbled up the first three games of the second set with an early breakthrough to her name. She kept attacking her opponent that made it extremely difficult for Peng to win the break back.
Scores progressed to 5-2 with Peng serving to stay in the match. She was under a lot of pressure as she committed a silly double-fault that was enough for the Slovak to pounce on her. Hantuchova followed this mistake with a couple of eye-startling winners
down the line that set up the breakpoint for her. She punched the ball straight at the body of her opponent who was unable to make a return.
Hantuchova praised the effort from Peng and said, "She has improved so much, especially over the last 12 months. She had a great year last year and she has worked really hard on her game - on the tennis side, on the fitness side. She is always going to be
one of the toughest players to play against, but she's a great girl. We always practice together. It's nice to see her do so well."
Next up for the Slovak is the German tennis ace, Julia Goerges.
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