Jie Zheng stuns Svetlana Kuznetsova in the semi-final clash – ASB Classic 2012
Chinese world number 48, Jie Zheng, stunned everyone once again as she fought back a set down to take down the third seed Russian, Svetlana Kuznetsova, in the semi-final encounter during the ASB Classic tournament on Friday. It
was long tiring battle that lasted for two hours and 28 minutes and Chinese confirmed her place in the finals with a cumulative score of 2-6, 6-3, 6-3.
It was an enthralling battle and crowd was ecstatic to witness the underdog overpowering the highly talented Russian. Kuznetsova had ousted the Chinese participant on seven occasions previously and haven’t lost to her at all.
It was a pretty straight forward draw on paper but Chinese turned the tables on her Russian rival and got off the mark in the head-to-head tally. Now the Russian leads the head-to-head score with 7-1.
World number 19, Kuznetsova, started the match in grand fashion and stamped her authority right from the start. With three consecutive successful serve games that were coupled with two breaks in a row were the most fascinating
stats for the Russian. Score was 5-0 in her favour as she entered the sixth game of the set.
Finally, Zheng held her serve and surprisingly broke in the next to push the score to 2-5 but she soon faced a severe onslaught from her opponent in the next game, which drew curtains for her in the first set. It was evident at
that stage that the third seed will easily sail past her opponent and clinch an easy one sided encounter but it was not the case.
Chinese pulled up her socks and started the set in good style as she broke her opponent’s serve; the third seed soon replied with a break in the next game to level the score. Both players held their serve in the next four games
and score pushed to 3-3. Chinese flabbergasted everyone with a successful break in the next game and then again in the last one to round off the proceedings of the second set in dashing fashion.
The length of the game looked to have drained the stamina of the third seed as she displayed a tamed effort in the final set. First three games were held by the respect serve players but the vital break in the fourth game and then
again in the sixth game gave a massive lead of four games to the Chinese underdog. Kuznetsova replied with a break in the seventh game but that was not good enough to stop the youngster from clinching the berth at the grand finale.
Jie Zheng goes head-to-head with the fourth seed Italian Flavia Pennetta in the final.
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