Daniela Hantuchova secures a place in the last four at 2011 Internationaux de Strasbourg
Daniela Hantuchova made it to the semi-final at 2011 Internationaux de Strasbourg with a 6-4, 6-2 victory over Russian Nadia Petrova on Thursday.
Hantuchova must have taken a lot of confidence from her recent performances on the tour as she executed her game plan brilliantly. She made a shaky start to the match as she over hit her backhand shot on a couple of occasions.
However once she settled down in the contest, she executed her shots brilliantly and smashed her ferocious forehand and backhand shots all over the court.
The Slovakian tennis pro broke the serve early in the opening set to take control of the situation. She successfully held on to her serve games afterwards to claim the opener 6-4.
Hantuchova continued to play her natural game with freedom in the second set as well and created a lot of break chances. She broke serve twice to earn a commanding lead in the set. Former world number five had no problems winning
her service games and converted the second match point to wrap up the contest in straight sets 6-4, 6-2.
Her controlled and accurate serves forced her opponent on to the back foot. Hantuchova’s strong baseline play put the challenger under immense pressure as she created tight angles from wide of the court. With an excellent 61 percent
first serve conversion and a 43 percent share of points in the serve return department, Hantuchova made it all look very easy. Winner of 4 WTA titles, Hantuchova, will take on Spaniard Anabel Medina Garrigues in the semi-final match-up. Garrigues has been
in special form over the last few weeks and made quick work of Mirjana Lucic to reach this far at the event.
Eleven years ago Hantuchova made her first quarterfinal appearance of Women’s Tennis Association tour at the same City of France. She defeated the same opponent (Nadia Petrova) to book her place in the last eight. Histor repeated
itself after all these years as the Slovakian floored the Russian on the same clay courts to reach the last four at the tournament.
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