Dinara Safina took down Tsvetana Pironkova at the Andalucia Tennis Experience
Former world number one Dinara Safina of Russia exhibited her vintage class to dispense the fifth seed Tsvetana Pironkova of Bulgaria out of the Andalucia Tennis Experience at Marbella, Spain on Wednesday. The Russian wildcard
defeated Pironkova in straight sets, 6-3, 6-4, in one hour and thirty six minutes to make it to the quarter-final of the $220,000 WTA (Women’s Tennis Association) tournament.
24-year-old Safina is yet to be defeated by the Bulgarian and has registered her third straight victory over her at Marbella. Currently ranked at 81 in the world, Safina made it to her first quarter-final since Seoul during last
September and her win over Pironkova was seen as an upset on paper by many tennis fans. She registered her sixth win of the running WTA season and looks in a good form to take the gold at Marbella.
“I am very happy. I think it’s the first time in a while that I have won two matches in successive days,” said Safina to the press reporter after her match, “However, I could have won both sets a little easier than I did and made
it a little tougher on myself by making some stupid mistakes.”
Safina conceded plenty of unforced errors in the game, including eight double faults but her aggressive game play compensated for it. She bagged 28 out of 43 first serve points in the game and crafted 10 opportunities to break
her opponent, converting five of them to her advantage. The Russian dropped her serve three times but her bleak opponent couldn’t capitalize on the initiative she got.
No significant difference was seen in the first serve accuracies of the two contestants in the opener but the Russian clearly edged her opponent with her points winning proficiency. Safina collected 12 of 19 first serve points
in the opening set and committed three doubles faults, which gifted a break point to the Bulgarian opponent. The Russian broke serve in the third and then in the seventh game of the first set to seal the opener at 6-3 and get the upper hand in the contest.
The Russian uplifted her serve percentage to 67 in the next set but turned over ambitious in doing so, coughing five double faults. Pironkova struck two break points out of her five chances but dropped her serve three times to
remain trailing at 4-5. Safina finally wound up the contest at 6-4 and advance to the round of eight at the Andalucia Tennis Experience.
Safina’s quarter-final opponent will be either the top seed Belarusian, Victoria Azarenka or Laura Pous Tio of Spain, who will be competing in the second round on Thursday.
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