Galina Voskoboeva conquers Maria Sharapova; advances into quarterfinal – Rogers Cop 2011
In a tournament full of upsets, Thursday afternoon matches ranked as the most shocking. Kazakhstan’s Galina Voskoboeva eliminated Russia’s Maria Sharapova from the Rogers Cup during the third round, played at the Rexall Centre
in York University, Toronto, Canada. Voskoboeva won the match in straight sets 6-3, 7-5 in an exciting 1 hour and 47 minutes.
The three-time grand slam champion, Sharapova committed three net balls, which was an extra double fault than the world number 135, Voskoboeva, who had also smashed an ace during the first set.
The 26-year-old, Voskoboeva never allowed Sharapova to set her rhythm and kept her running like a ping pong ball with volleys and an endless barrage of well placed drop shots, which assisted her in achieving a commendable 69% of
her total service points, that were 6% more points that her adversary’s.
The world number 5, Sharapova was only able to attain 10 out of 32 return points, as opposed to her opponent who had a 38% win in her total return points, and hence, had 7% more points in her total returns of the set.
The Kazakh was on top of her game and in her groove, with a stable defence she did not set up a single situation for her Russian opponent to break her and instead, broke her rival one out of the three chances she got, because the
other two chances were saved by Sharapova.
Voskoboeva restricted her opponent to only three games in the set and took the lead to bag her victory, by accomplishing 55% of her total set points against Sharapova who won only 45%.
Amidst the second set Voskoboeva broke Sharapova’s serve to go up 5-4, winning the first three points of the second set but was unable to close the match out. On the other hand, Sharapova salvaged the game and tied the set by taking
advantage of a pair of double faults and a pair of unforced errors committed by Voskoboeva.
However, in the next game the Kazakh regrouped to break Sharapova and then held the serve to win the set and the match.
The two had met three years ago at the Qatar Ladies Open in Doha, Qatar where Sharapova had survived a mid match lapse 6-4, 4-6, 6-1 and had led in their head-to-head. This was a chance given to Voskoboeva by the Higher Power to
restore her dignity and equalize the head-to-head.
Shockingly, the 26-year-old, Voskoboeva was able to secure a berth in the Quarter final of the Rogers Cup 2011 by not just accomplishing 54% of her total set points but by defeating the 24-year-old Sharapova who is currently ranked
at world number 5 and was a top seed.
Maria Sharapova who was dumbfounded after her loss in the match said, “Rust had little to do with it I guess, you could say that because I haven't played that may matches since Wimbledon, but at the end of the day it doesn't really
matter”.
Following her victory Galina Voskoboeva will now be facing Victoria Azarenka of Belarus in the quarterfinals.
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