Dominika Cibulkova dumps Andrea Petkovic to reach the last eight – New Haven Open 2012
World number 13, Dominika Cibulkova, dumped the 43rd ranked German star, Andrea Petkovic, in the second round of the New Haven Open at Yale in straight sets 6-4, 6-1 to end a comeback run of the 24-year-old German.
Petkovic commented about her comeback tournament, “I'd play three or four good shots then miss horrible shots I'd never miss in a hundred years. My strokes and movement are just fine, but you can never simulate a match in practice,
so when the stress of a match comes I feel like it's a totally new situation. And I've basically been out for eight months, so really the inconsistency in rallies and matches is the price I'm paying.”
She further added, “Five or six years ago it was the same thing. I was out eight months for my ACL and when I came back, I'd play a few good matches then lose horrible ones.”
Petkovic has not played at a professional platform since second round withdrawal at Stuttgart in April. She was injured in that tournament and never returned for any event until her first round appearance in New Haven.
The sixth seed Cibulkova started off with a breakpoint and held her serve to take a lead of 2-0. A series of breakpoints in the following four games kept the Slovak’s lead intact. However, the German managed to squeeze a serve
hold in the seventh game of the set to diminish the trail and broke serve to equalize the scores at 4-4.
However, a miserable show in the ninth game of the match forced the 24-year-old German to drop a breakpoint and she failed to keep the set alive despite leading the scores 15:30 at one stage of the 10th game.
The second set was pure torture for the German who missed multiple shots that she would never has missed in her entire career. She lost three breakpoints in succession after the first serve hold and lost the match in a dismal fashion.
Dominika Cibulkova has a tough draw in the quarter-final against the former world number one, Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark, who is seeded third in the tournament.
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