Huber/ Raymond stun King/Shvedova in the final to claim title – US Open 2011
Sunday the 11th of September was the second last day of the US Open 2011. Amongst the finals that took place, Women’s Doubles Final also came to its conclusion. The two seeded teams that collided against each other to
take home the crown on the Arthur Ashe Stadium of the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center were Number 3 seeds Vania King besides Yaroslava Shvedova and the number 4 seeded American Liezel Huber with Lisa Raymond. Huber/ Raymond came out victorious
by bouncing back from a set down with a 4-6, 7-6(5), 7-6(3) victory after two hours and 47 minutes.
The two teams had met once prior to this event, just a few weeks ago at the quarterfinals of Cincinnati. King and Shvedova won that match in two close sets of 7-6(5) 6-4.
Initiating the first round of the set was King/ Shvedova, who held their serve in the first game and opened the score board at 1-0. The two teams then went on to holding their respective serves in the following two games. During
the fourth game King/ Shvedova break Huber/ Raymond by shooting a powerful forehand return which forces an error from the American pair.
However, the American duo break back in the following game, they then hold their serve to even the score at 3-3. Winning on their respective serves in the following three games the teams equalize the score at 4-4. In the ninth
game King/ Shvedova hold serve and in the tenth as Huber/ Raymond are serving to stay in the match, the American and Slovak mix are looking to break their opponents to take the match. As King/ Shvedova send a thumping forehand down the line, they break to
win the opening set 6-4.
After taking a beating in the first set, the second set was again a blow for a blow, as the two teams’ survived mini breaks each, they constantly kept winning on their serves until Huber and Raymond finally pushed the set to a
tie breaker. The head-to-head run between the two teams lost steam in the tie breaker as the American team clinched an early break to go 3-0 in the set. Although King/ Shvedova fought back to reduce the deficit to 2-4 before levelling it at five points each,
they could not maintain their form. Reeling off two straight points, the Americans were able to clinch the tiebreaker 7-5 and bring the set score to event terms.
By the end of the second set both the teams had bagged a set each and opening the decisive set was team America (Huber/ Raymond). Again the two teams had broken each other once during the third set and were successfully winning
on their serves. Ultimately in the twelfth game the set was pushed to another tie breaker. Huber/ Raymond took their performance a notch higher in the second tie breaker of the match, the American team managed to break their opponent twice early on to record
a 4-0 lead. From there on the two teams won points on service with the Americans eventually serving out the set with a 7-3 tie breaker victory.
At the end, the American team had smashed two aces and fifty four winners in the match to eventually hold the title of the Women’s Doubles US Open 2011.
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