Flavia Pennetta edges past Dominika Cibulkova in round one – Qatar Total Open 2012
Yet another upset outcome on the second day of the Qatar Total Open and this time it was the 11th seed Slovak competitor, Dominika Cibulkova, crashing out at the hands of 23rd ranked Italian veteran, Flavia
Pennetta. The unseeded Italian ousted Cibulkova in a gruelling three-setter, settling the final scores at 6-3, 2-6, 7-5, to advance into the round of 16 at the tournament.
Being a part of the WTA (Women’s Tennis Association) Premier series, the competition was held on the hard courts of Qatar, Doha, with the world’s top class women tennis players competing for the coveted championship title. 29-year-old
Pennetta was clearly an underdog before stepping on the court against the world number 17 but she played far better tennis than her rankings suggest, disposing of Cibulkova after a tough competition.
The Italian veteran was on a four-match winning streak against Cibulkova, with the most recent victory coming last year in the round of 16 of a WTA event in Beijing, ending in three sets. Pennetta was soaring with confidence of
four consecutive victories on his back and took off the match in grand fashion.
The opening four games of the match witnessed successive breaks of serve from both players, pushing the scores to 2-2. Cibulkova was going neck-to-neck with her Italian rival but a sudden momentum shift was seen in the seventh
game when Pennetta broke her serve for the third time and backed it up with another break point to seal the opener set 6-3.
Trailing a set down, the 11th seed Slovak made a remarkable recovery in the following set to force her way right back in business. She held her serve throughout the set and stung two consecutive serve breaks in the fifth
and seventh games to assert her authority in the match. Cibulkova comprehensively served out of the second set at 6-2, levelling the matchup at one-all.
With the match tied at one set apiece, the decisive set was ought to be a thriller and it actually proved to be one. Both contestants threw the best they have at each other to get the upper hand in the contest. An exchange of break
points was seen right up in the third set to take the scores to 2-2. Cibulkova broke her opponent’s serve in the fifth game, only to be broken in the very next game. A further trade of serves took the scores to 6-6 but a vital break point conversion from Pennetta
in the 12th game proved to be the final blow, sealing victory for her at 7-5.
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