Elena Vesnina undoes Julia Goerges in the third three-sets quarterfinal of the 2011 Family Circle Cup
Russian tennis pro Elena Vesnina fought through the third tie-breaking quarterfinal of the 2011 Family Circle Cup just minutes ago to outdo Germany’s Julia Goerges at Charleston. Vesnina, who is unseeded at the tournament, defeated the higher-ranked Goerges 2-6, 6-2, 6-2 and became the third quarterfinal contestant to qualify for the semis from a set down. The Russian player took exactly two hours and eight minutes to send Goerges off the court in defeat.
Vesnina is currently ranked World Number 56, and is 24 years old. The player is right-handed, and has been part of the pro tour for over eight years. She first began playing as a professional in 2002, although she has not managed to win any WTA career titles so far. Goerges, on the other hand, is 22 years old and ranked World Number 35. She turned pro in 2005, and has been playing for over half a decade. The German already has one WTA career title under her belt.
Despite the fact that Goerges is obviously, according to the rankings, the better player, she could not compete against Vesnina past the first set of the match. The German player blasted into the first round with all cylinders firing, committing no double faults and scoring one ace. She also managed to win 72 per cent of her points on her first serve, and went on to break Elena Vesnina twice without ever being driven to break point herself. The German pro concluded the whirlwind first set easily, scoring a whopping 66 per cent of the total points to win it 6-2. At this point, many spectators had already given Vesnina up as a bad job as far as the match was concerned.
However, the Russian player proved that she should not be written off so quickly in the next two sets, when she made a surprising comeback to score one more ace and break her opponent four times out of seven. In addition to this, Vesnina managed to dodge and defend herself against ten more break points, making sure that the only ones she could not fend off were the two points in the first set. Goerges seemed to take a severe dip at this point, and Vesnina closed the match with five more points than her opponent to win the match 6-2, 2-6, 2-6.
Elena Vesnina now has a head-to-head record of 3-0 against Julia Goerges, as she has beaten her twice before in different tournaments. Their last meeting was at the 2010 Ponte Vedra Beach event.
The Russian pro will take on Chinese eleventh seed Shuai Peng in the semi-final of the 2011 Family Circle Cup.
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