Hlavackova/Hradecka upset King/Shvedova to reach the semis – Australian Open 2012
Czech duo of Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka surprised the third seeds, Vania King of America and Yaroslava Shvedova of Kazakhstan, in straight sets at the Australian Open 2012 on Tuesday. They registered a 7-5, 6-2 victory over their opponents to advance into the final four at this first of the four Grand Slam event held in Melbourne, Australia.
Seventh seeded tandem made a shaky start at the Melbourne Park but sought the right path afterwards, pulling out the victory in an hour and 31 minutes long marathon. Facing each other third time, Hlavackova and Hradecka not only avenged their defeat at the US Open last year but also took lead in the head-to-head series by 2-1 against the American-Kazakh pair.
The Czechs nervously stepped on court number two and suffered the first blow in the opening game. Despite snatching their break back in the fourth game, they lost their serve again in the eighth game and trailed at 3-5. However, Hlavackova and Hradecka found the $454,500 track again recovered in the very next game. They held their following serve and capitalised on another break chance in the last game, clinching the opener with a 7-5 score line.
Lower ranked Czechs carried their momentum in the following set and wiped out the opening three games in a row with a break of serve. They swiped in remaining serves without facing any obstacle and cashed in another break opportunity in the last game, sealing the set by winning six games to two.
Overall, Hlavackova and Hradecka dusted away half of the four breakpoints they encountered but capitalised on five out of eleven break chances. They commit 20 unforced errors but smacked 31 winners and formulated a better first serve share.
Next up for the high flying Czechs is the eleventh seeded Italian team of Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci who crushed the Russians, Alla Kudryavtseva and Ekaterina Makarova with a breadstick to reach this spot.
On another court, Russian team of Svetlana Kuznetsova and Vera Zvonareva faced a better fate. They dumped the Romanian duo of Irina-Camelia Begu and Monica Niculescu in straight sets to reach this spot. The Russians lost their serve once but broke their rivals’ serve three times, sealing the success with a 7-5, 6-3 score line in 91 minutes.
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