Flavia Pennetta upsets Caroline Wozniacki in quarterfinal – China Open 2011
World No. 1, Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark squared off against Flavia Pennetta of Italy in the quarter-finals of China Open on October 7th in Beijing. The match kicked-off as expected with Wozniacki leading the score-line
in the first set and sealed it with 6-3 but the real show started afterwards when Pennetta turned it around with a 6-0 score in the second set and prolonged the battle to the final decider.
Spectators were pleased with the way things were going. Both players were on top of their game and battling their hearts out to place a berth in the semis. The third set went to a tie-breaker and after an epic contest of two hours
fourteen minutes the world number 26 came on top with a 7-6(2) win and knocked-off the tournament favourite, Caroline Wozniacki.
Wozniacki started off the things as expected, mastering her opponent in all departments and pushing her on back-foot from the start. Pennetta couldn’t handle the initial classy display of power and accuracy from Wozniacki and the
lead of 2 games at the start proved a bit too much for the world number 26. She couldn’t recover from there and Wozniacki sealed the first in commanding fashion, winning it by substantial margin of 3 games which was enough to place her mark on the match and
push her one step closer to the victory.
Pennetta didn’t lose heart and composed herself in the break. She was all set to pick up her game play and turn the things over in the second-set. She came back as a new improved Pennetta who was fired up to put up a much better
performance and that’s exactly what she did. She manoeuvred the ball at will and discovered her best form to hammer the tournament favourite all over the place. Wozniacki seemed to have lost all her charm and wandered on the courts aimlessly. Pennetta had
never won from Wozniacki in their five meetings but this time she was ready to put a full stop to her losing streak.
The third set was no less than one of the best tennis plays of all times. Both players were looking to thump each other down with every chance they got and were not at all in any mood to give up. Normal players would have been
exhausted by then but these two were as fresh as they were at the start of the match. The last set entered into a tie-breaker and this was the moment when crowd sensed a major upset coming their way.
It was all about holding the pressure and keeping her nerves calm at that stage. Pennetta was the one who came on top and stole the berth in semis and fulfilled her aim to put an end to her losing streak against Wozniacki. This
was the most memorable moment for the Italian who had been in search for this triumph for a long period of time. She will now face the eleventh seed Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland in the semi-final of the event.
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