Kirilenko/Petrova battle past Jankovic/Petkovic to reach the quarter-final – China Open 2012
Second seeded Russian duo of Maria Kirilenko and Nadia Petrova had to dig deep in their opening doubles encounter at the China Open on Wednesday. They laboured for one hour and 27 minutes to hunt down the wildcard competitive pair of Jelena Jankovic and Andrea Petkovic in a three-set thriller, settling the final score line at 6-3, 3-6, 10-6.
A fierce competition was already anticipated from both teams and it actually proved to be one. Kirilenko and Petrova took hold of the momentum early in the contest and bagged the opening set to get into the driving seat. The Russians couldn’t carry on their impetus in the following set, letting an opening for their rivals to strike back at them. Jankovic and Petkovic bade their stunning comeback in the second set and levelled the match at one set apiece. However, the wildcard entrants couldn't do much in the decider and had to submit to the might of the second seeded Russians in the end.
Kirilenko and Petrova had an absolute flyer in the opening set, breaking their competitors in the second game and subsequently holding their own serve to post a 3-0 lead straight up. Jankovic and Petkovic then held their remaining serve games in the set but couldn’t curtail the lead of their opponents, eventually losing the first set at 3-6.
The Serbian-German tandem had its chance in the following set and two cracking breaks of serve took them to 6-3, bringing down Kirilenko and Petrova back on even terms at 1-1. The second seeded Russians stood focused in the decider and raced away to a 6-1 lead to begin with. They kept on pressing Jankovic and Petkovic and sealed their win at 10-6 in the end.
The overall match stats clearly show how intense the battle went on Wednesday. Kirilenko and Petrova delivered 66 per cent of their first serve on target, bagging 28 out of 42 points on it, whilst their rivals closely followed by winning 27 out of 41 first serve points. Both teams belted two serve breaks apiece in the entire contest and it was only a matter of time that the Russians prevailed in the intense pressure situations of the super tie-break round.
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