Liezel Huber and Nadia Petrova advances to semis in women’s doubles at Sony Ericsson Open
3rd seeded American Russian pair of Liezel Huber and Nadia Petrova trashed the wild card pair of American Sloane Stephens and Belgian Yanina Wickmayer on Wednesday. They registered a 6-4, 6-1 win over the wild card entrants
to advance to the semi-finals at the Tennis Center at Crandon Park in Miami.
The seeded pair sailed to this spot without losing a set. They overpowered Croatian wild card entrants, Petra Martic and Ajla Tomljanovic, and Taiwanese Romanian pair of Su-Wei Hsieh and Monica Niculescu to reach this spot.
The unseeded pair on the other hand dumped American pair of Raquel Kops-Jones and Abigail Spears in the first round. They then upset 7th seeded American pair of Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Meghann Shaughnessy in three
sets to reach this spot.
The winning combination of Huber and Petrova displayed tremendous skills in the match. Though they had a similar first serve share of 55 per cent in the opening set, the American Russian pair registered an acceptable 63 per cent
win on it. They saved two out of three breakpoints and found six breakpoint opportunities. However, they converted two opportunities to their advantage and won the first set with a 6-4 score line. The pair also had a convincing return point winning share of
52 per cent.
The winning pair perfected their co-ordination in the final set as they earned a spectacular 89 per cent win on their higher first serve share. In addition to this, Huber and Petrova conceded zero breakpoints and converted three
out of eight breakpoint opportunities to their advantage to clinch the set with a breadstick. They just conceded a single game but won six games by their amazing skills and agility.
Stephens and Wickmayer played poorly in the match and had poor co-ordination. They clobbered more double faults and had lower first serve share of 54 per cent as compared to the winning pair’s 57 per cent. In addition to this,
they could only save nine out of 14 breakpoints and eventually exited the event.
They will next face 8th seeded Spanish pair of Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez and Anabel Medina Garrigues who reached the semis after upsetting top seeded pair of Gisela Dulko and Flavia Penetta in straight sets.
The Spaniards clobbered zero double faults and had a much higher first serve share of 70 percent as compared to their rivals’ 63 percent. They also earned a convincing 59 percent win on it but saved only 29 percent of the breakpoints.
The Spanish pair then converted seven out of nine breakpoint opportunities to their advantage to win the match with a 7-5, 6-4 score line.
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