Elena Vesnina Rises Up To The Challenge
A little drama was needed to push Elena Vesnina in her match againt Germany’s Julia Goerges in the recently concluded MPS Group Championships. The competition’s fourth seed wasted two chances to take a 3-1 lead in the 1st set of the match against the German. Apart from the two chances to take the lead, Elena Vesnina committed four consecutive errors, which resulted to her service game being broken by Goerges.
Maybe it was the idea of coming from behind and winning that thrilled her, or maybe she just got sleepy? According to her, it was the latter. She says, that she was not awake enough and that she only started to play better when Goerges broke her. This is definitely an acceptable reason, however if she does play like this in French Open, she may not be able to get a chance to recover in the game.
Which is why it’s such a good thing that Vesnina won the 16 out of 17 points in the next 4 games to win the set, which helps her get back in the match. After taking that set, Elena took control of the whole match and won over the German. Apart from the drama that was happening on court, there were a few distractions off-court as well. A fan appeared to have fainted in the second set of the match. She was quickly rushed to the first aid booth and was quickly attended to. According to the doctors on site, by the time the match was over, the woman was alert and responsive after a few minutes in the medical tent.
Her next match victory over was against America’s Sweetheart, the 18 year old Melanie Oudidn, who was obviously no match for a player like Elena Vesnina. She won comfortably, scoring 6-2, 6-1 against the American. A year ago, Elena Vesnina reached the semifinals at the MPS Group Champsionships and she is repeating her run at this year’s tournament. In the semis, she faced Caronline Wozniacki and showed that she was a capable of competitor. Wozniacki won over Elena afer 149 minutes, 1-6, 7-6 and 6-4.
After being eliminated in the MPS Group Championships, Elena went ahead to join the Family Circle Cup in Charleston where she was seeded 10th in the tournament. She faced Heather Watson, a qualifier, in the first round and prevailed against her. However, Elena had quite a hard time facing the qualifier. In the third round of the competition, she was faced against her doubles partner, China’s Peng Shuai. She lost to her double partner in a well fought match. Unfortunately, she also hurt herself as she strained her left adductor muscle.
It may be observed that Elena Vesnina finished well in two out of the four clay-court tournaments she has joined, however, she may not fare as well in the upcoming French Open this coming May 23rd. Elena Vesnina injured herself in the Family Circle Cup and her injury is still obviously affecting her game. In the last two clay-court tournaments she joined, the Italian Open, Madrid Open and the Internationaux de Strasbourg, she exited the tournament in the first round of the tournament.
These last three tournaments are the tournaments that often serve as the barometer of how a player performs in the French Open; so if they do well, then it’s likely that they will do well in the French Open and vice-versa.
So realistically, despite her semi-final finishes, Elena Vesnina was unlikely to finish beyond the preliminary rounds of of the French Open, where he was defeated by German Andrea Petković 4-6, 6-1, 6-4. The defeat was another setback for the Russian after getting eliminated last year in the same tournament.
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