Dominika Cibulkova outfoxes Shahar Peer to reach the quarters – UNICEF Open 2012
Slovak third seed, Dominika Cibulkova, had her chance to take her revenge of the only loss against the Israeli superstar, Shahar Peer, in the second round of the UNICEF Open on Tuesday. She wasted no time at all in trashing the
47th ranked Israeli in straight sets 6-2, 7-6(5) to book a spot in the quarter-final of the tournament.
The opening set witnessed a dismal performance from the Israeli superstar who dropped an early breakpoint to go down 0-3 at the start. She failed to respond to the onslaught of her rival, who looked in sublime form having already
plonked the first round opponent with resounding straight sets score line.
So, the pressure was on Peer who needed to resist firmly but she fell apart very early in the match. World number 13, Cibulkova, was tested just once in the opening set; during the fifth game when she was forced to save a couple
of breakpoints but she did well to hold on and keep the lead intact. She kept on exerting the pressure on her competitor and finally bagged another breakthrough in the eighth game of the match that rounded off the opening set.
The second set witnessed a heartbreaking start for the Slovak whose serve was broken in the opening game of the match but she didn’t panic and won the breakthrough back in the fourth game to tie the scores level. Both players exchanged
breakpoints in four consecutive games that kept the set swinging in one’s favour and than the other. However, no serious damage was done to any player’s campaign and the tie-breaker round was enforced to decide the set.
In the tie-breaker, the Slovak took an early mini-break to go 2:0 up but Peer fought back with a mini-break and levelled the scores at 3-3. However, the experience of the 23-year-old helped her grab the crucial mini-break towards
the ending stages of the tie-breaker that booked her a spot in the last eight players of the tournament.
Next up for the Slovak beauty queen is the Russian 8th seed contender, Nadia Petrova,
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