King/Niculescu overcome Garrigues/Pennetta in the quarter-finals – Sony Ericsson Open 2012
Quarter-final clash of the Sony Ericsson Open between the two unseeded teams was settled in favour of the American-Romanian duo of Vania King and Monica Niculescu on Wednesday. They outplayed the pair of Anabel Medina Garrigues
of Spain and the Italian veteran, Flavia Pennetta, in straight sets, 7-5, 6-2, to claim a berth in the semi-final round of the mega event in Miami, Florida.
King and Niculescu took one hour and 25 minutes to dispose of the Spanish-Italian pair in an assertive fashion. The opening set of the match witnessed a gruelling battle between the two duos but it was sheer class of King and Niculescu
which proved too strong for their opponents to handle. Once getting into their winning groove, King and Niculescu blasted past the second set to register victory in a dominant manner.
King and Niculescu delivered 75 per cent of their serves on target, bagging 29 out of 43 first serve points and were exceptional on their return games. They crafted five break opportunities in the matchup and converted four of
their chances en route to victory. Garrigues and Pennetta, on the other hand, also had equal number of break points in the contest but could merely cash in one opportunity to finish on the losing end.
King and Niculescu drew first blood in the fourth game and held their serve to attain a 4-1 substantial lead in the opener. A counterattack from the Spanish-Italian combination in the seventh game then took the scored to 5-5, dragging
the set towards a tie-breaker round. King and Niculescu made the crucial move in the 12th game and closed out the first set at 7-5 to get one up.
The following set was completely owned by the American-Romanian duo. King and Niculescu reeled off 10 out of 16 first serve points and broke twice in the set to conclude their victory at 6-2, earning a place in the semi-finals
of the Sony Ericsson Open.
King and Niculescu will face the fifth seed Russian opponents, Maria Kirilenko and Nadia Petrova, in the semi-final battle later this week. The Russians toppled the duo of Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Lucie Safarova in the quarter-final
round on Wednesday.
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