Dominika Cibulkova devastates Jie Zheng to reach the fourth round – Sony Ericsson Open 2012
Seeded at number 16 in the tournament draw, Slovakia’s Dominika Cibulkova, exhibited one of the most thumping victory of the week so far, outmuscling the world number 31, Jie Zheng of China, in the third round of the Sony Ericsson
Open. The 18th ranked Slovak took just 63 minutes to formulate a resounding victory at 6-2, 6-0, to march into the fourth round of the WTA (Women’s Tennis Association) Premier Mandatory event in Miami, Florida.
It was a completely one-sided affair, with Cibulkova dominating every second of it to register sixth victory of the current season. The 22-year-old Slovak suffered a straight sets loss at the hands of Zheng in 2008 Wimbledon Championships
but avenged her defeat from the Chinese tennis ace on Sunday. She spared merely two games for Zheng in the entire matchup, thumping her way to victory in an authoritative manner with a bagel set.
Zheng’s pathetic serve game proved to be fatal in the contest, as she secured just six out of 27 first serve points to finish on the losing side in the end. Her misery was further made even worse with Cibulkova converting seven
of her eight break points in the match. She was outplayed by the belligerent Slovak in every segment of the game and was found struggling throughout the contest to finish on the losing side in the end.
"The match today was pretty good from my side. I played pretty well," Cibulkova said. "Finally after a long time I was just playing my tennis, which is really aggressive tennis - she usually hits fast and low, and I was hitting
faster than her today. I was really going for my shots and I'm very satisfied with this win."
A huge challenge awaits Cibulkova in the fourth round when she will face the 25-match winning streak of the world number one, Victoria Azarenka, on Tuesday night. Top seed Azarenka also registered a thumping straight sets victory,
6-0, 6-2, over the British wildcard entrant, Heather Watson, in the third round on Sunday and is bidding to claim her fifth championship title of the season at the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami.
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