King/ Shvedova outlast fifth seeds Kirilenko/ Petrova in semi-final – US Open 2011
Friday afternoon saw the begininning of the semi-finals of the US Open Women’s Doubles. Two seeded teams battled it out for two-hour, 26-minute on Grandstand, of the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. Number three seeds
Vania King and Yaroslava Shvedova outlasted fifth seeds Maria Kirilenko and Nadia Petrova with 7-6(7), 2-6, 6-3 victory.
Soon after the two teams walked onto the court, the crowd chanted ‘King King’, showing support for the American and the Kazak, who were also the defending champions. The first to serve was the mix of King and Shvedova, they won
on their serve, in the second game broke their opponents and by the third game they were leading 3-0. It was little too late for the Russian Kirilenko/ Petrova to jump back in the set, however, they broke their opponents in the next game and eventually by
holding their serve in the eighth game they equalized the score to 3-3. In the following two games the score was again balanced out at 4-4. In the ninth game King/ Shvedova were broken for the second time but eventually in the tenth broke back and levelled
the game at 5-5. In the following two games both the player won on their serves and the set was pushed to a tie breaker.
The two teams' neck-to-neck run carried on well into the tiebreaker. Although at times each of the pair managed to edge into a mini-lead, it was almost immediately snatched back by their opponents. Breaking serve early in the tiebreaker,
the defending champions rushed to a 3-0 lead only to have their own broken on the very next point, bringing the score to even terms. As the powerful aces and marvellous winners continued, the teams forced the scoreboard to progress on even terms all the way
to seven points each. A double fault from Kirilenko gave the American Kazakh pair the mini-break they needed as they reeled off two straight points to clinch the tiebreaker 9-7.
After taking a thrashing in the first round, the babushka dolls came back with a vengeance. They capitalised on four break points, smashed 4 winners and won the second set with a difference of 11 points. During the set King/ Shvedova
were broken in the first game and also in the third at which point the Russians had taken a lead of 3-0. However, King and Schvedova broke back in the fourth and the sixth game but were still two breaks down with a 2-4 score. In the seventh game The Russians
again broke the American and Kazak to secure their lead at 5-2 and eventually as they smashed an ace during the game point they won the second set.
At this point in the match, both the players were battling for a place in the final and with a set apiece the third set was the decisive set. Opening the determining set were King/ Shvedova and as the two players rallied a game
for a game in the first seven serves, in the eighth game the American and the Kazak broke their opponents for the first and last time to secure their lead at 5-3. Serving for match point, King and Shvedova held their serve by smashing ace.
Having won their first two Grand Slams that they played together last year at Wimbledon and US Open, King and Shvedova will be going for their third Grand Slam title against Liezel Huber with Lisa Raymond, who are seeded at number
4.
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