Dominika Cibulkova dumps Azarenka to register the biggest surprise of the event – French Open 2012
A series of upsets had already been witnessed in the first week of the Roland Garros French Open but the biggest one was yet to come until Sunday. The belligerent world number one and the hot favourite for the Grand Slam title,
Victoria Azarenka, as brutally thrashed out at the hands of the Slovakian tennis ace, Dominika Cibulkova, in the fourth round of the tournament. The 15th seed Slovak registered a thumping victory in straight sets, 6-2, 7-6(4), to earn a berth in
the quarter-final draw of the mega event in Paris, France.
No one at the coveted Stade Roland Garros expected the top seeded Belarusian to fall in such dismal manner but it was the sheer brilliance of the world number 16, Cibulkova, which left her stranded in the end. Azarenka was off
to her usual sloppy start and then gathered up some pace in the later parts of the contest to pose some fight. However, she couldn’t deliver her best to restrain the Slovak opponent from claiming victory and advancing into the final eight of the clay court
Grand Slam event.
"You can't be human if you weren't thinking about that," Cibulkova said. "Today the same thing happened: I got nervous. I wasn't going for my shots anymore. But I managed to get through these emotions. When she was 6-5 up I said,
'Hey, come on, you have to play your game and just make it.' And for the tie-break I'm very, very proud of myself that I was still going for my shots and that I made it, because she would never give me the match. I just made it."
Cibulkova nailed six break points and belted 84 thudding winners in the contest to take the better of the top seed contender. She took no time before attaining a 6-2, 4-2, lead in the matchup and then quickly went on to finish
her emphatic victory in the tie-breaker round.
It was the third encounter between these two aggressive contenders this season. Cibulkova was outmuscled by Azarenka in the fourth round of the Miami Masters but she repeated the similar sort of belligerence in Sunday’s combat
to come out as the surprise winner. She has curtailed her head-to-head deficit to 3-8 against the world number one after her fourth round victory and is now rated among the strongest contenders for lifting the coveted gold at the Roland Garros. She will face
the sixth seed Aussie tennis ace, Samantha Stosur, in the quarter-final brawl later this week.
Tags: