Dominika Cibulkova sweeps away Tsvetana Pironkova in round two – Kremlin Cup 2012
Defending champion, Dominika Cibulkova, wiped off another hurdle in the hunt for retaining the Kremlin Cup title in Moscow. On Wednesday, she ousted the 44th ranked Bulgarian star, Tsvetana Pironkova, to reach the quarter-final
stage of the tournament taking just 75 minutes.
Both these players contain rich history amongst themselves. They have contested seven matches including the one discussed but the results have tilted in favour of the 23-year-old Slovak on six different occurrences.
However, the only loss that was witnessed by Cibulkova at the hands of Pironkova was earlier this season during the opening round of the London Olympics. So, the upset for definitely on the cards but the 14th ranked
Slovak made sure that she not only took revenge of that heavy defeat but also diminished the second hurdle on her way to the title.
Cibulkova took a lead of 2-0 with a blink of an eye. She lost just one point on her serve in the opening game and put her opponent on the back foot with the quick fire in the return play. However, the tables were turned upon her
by the 25-year-old Bulgarian who broke serve in the third game to lower the trail and held her serve to make sure that scores were tied at 2-2. It was a major blow for the Slovak.
Despite the failure of capitalizing on the early lead, Cibulkova kept on playing her natural game and was rewarded in the sixth game when she broke serve to take a lead of 4-2. She held her serve to make it 5-2 in her favour and
didn’t allow Pironkova to win a single point in the following game that rounded off the set with a breakpoint to the Slovak’s name.
The fifth seed Slovak broke serve in the second game to take a lead of 2-0 again. Both players traded breakpoints that kept the lead of the Slovak intact. She didn’t allow her rival to bounce back into the contest, lost just three
points on her serve in the following games.
Dominika Cibulkova takes on Caroline Wozniacki in the quarter-final clash.
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