Kaia Kanepi stuns sixth seed Svetlana Kuznetsova in quarterfinal – Kremlin Cup 2011
Estonian Kaia Kanepi got rid of sixth Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova in the quarterfinal of the Kremlin Cup 2011. The two had taken up the gauntlet on indoor hard courts of the Olympic Stadium in Moscow, Russia. After one hour and
twenty one minutes the unseeded Estonian Kanepi stunned the sixth seeded Russian Kuznetsova in straight sets of 6-1, 6-2 on Friday the 21st of October 2011.
Opening the first round of the match was Kanepi, who battled a deuce in the first game to ward off the sixth seeded Russian and successfully placed herself on the scoreboard at 1-0. The Estonian then capitalized on a breakpoint
in the second game and took a mini lead of 2-0 on the scoreboard. However, in the third game Kuznetsova broke Kanepi but she was unable to close in on the lead as Kanepi too broke back in the fourth game and the scoreboard had spun to 3-1 with the Estonian
leading the set.
In the fifth game Kanepi shifted into top gear and comfortably bagged her service game and in the sixth capitalized on another break to further extend her lead to 5-1 by the end of the sixth game. Kanepi was now only a game away
from clogging the opening set and as she served for the set, she smashed a marvellous backhand winner and bagged the opening game with a bread stick victory. She was now one up in the match.
This time commencing the second set of the match was Kuznetsova and she got off to an appalling start as she was unable to bag her first service game. However, she closed in on the gap in the second game as Kanepi’s forehand shot
went wayward and the Kuznetsova made a return by placing herself on the scoreboard at 1-1 besides the Estonian. In the third game Kuznetsova double faulted and endorsed a crucial breakpoint to her adversary, who had now taken a mini lead by not only capitalizing
on the break but also holding her serve in the fourth game.
During the fifth and the sixth game the players bagged a service game each on their respective serves and the scoreboard had spun to 4-2 with Kanepi leading the set. However, As Kuznetsova was serving for the seventh game; she
double faulted on her serve and endorsed yet another pivotal breakpoint to Kanepi. On the other hand, the Estonian capitalized on the break point and was now only a game away from victory. As she served for her last service game, she smashed a backhand winner
down the line and clogged the set and the match.
Next up for Kanepi is Czech Lucie Safarova in the semi final of the event.
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