Dominika Cibulkova upsets Vera Zvonareva in the third round of the BNP Paribas Open
Twenty fifth seeded Slovak Dominika Cibulkova made a huge upset on Sunday night when she defeated world number three, Vera Zvonareva of Russia in the third round of the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells, California. Ranked 27th
in the world, Cibulkova exhibited her extraordinary tennis skills to win the three-set thriller by 4-6, 7-6(4), 6-4, taking three hours and nine minutes of play.
Cibulkova lost the opening set of the contest but she made an excellent comeback in to the game, stinging a surprised victory over the Russian top seed. The Slovak got her winning momentum from the second set tie breaker and carried
it through to the rest of the match. Zvonareva was led down by her high error count in the contest, including six double faults and many missed opportunities.
The Russian had an excellent start to the contest but appeared to have lost her steam by the second set tie breaker, eventually surrendering the game to her opponent. Zvonareva’s first serve percentage was 56, far below her own
standards but still better than her opponent’s 50 per cent accuracy.
Zvonareva took off by breaking Cibulkova’s serve in the very first game of the match to lead 2-0. Her Slovak opponent broke back in the fourth game to level the score 2-2, but the third seeded Russian made her second breakthrough
in the next game to lead 4-2. She collected 12 out of 17 first serve points in the first set and played error-free tennis to outplay her opponent in the opener. Cibulkova struck her second break point in the eighth game to make the score 4-4 but the agile
Russian cracked her third break point to serve for the set at 5-4. Zvonareva clinched the opener at 6-4, taking 47 minutes of play.
No serve breaks were seen in the opening six games of the second set, until the Russian nailed one break point to get to 5-4 lead. Zvonareva got seven break chances in the second set but the third seed converted just one. A timely
serve break from the Slovak brought her back into the set at 6-6, enforcing a tie breaker round. Cibulkova proved better than the world number three in the tie breaker round, restricting the Russian to four points while she concluded the second set at 7-6(4)
and imposing a third.
Cibulkova carried her winning momentum forward in the decider, breaking the Russian serve twice to get a 5-4 lead in the set. The Slovak stunned the tennis fans as she sealed the third set at 6-4, ejecting Zvonareva and making
her way into the fourth round.
The Slovak will need to defeat her fourth round opponent, 23rd seed Yanina Wickmayer of Belgium, before she gets a spot in the quarter-finals. Wickmayer ousted the 14th seeded Kaia Kanepi 3-6, 6-4, 6-1 in
the third round of the BNP Paribas Open.
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