Lisicki/Peng stuns Makarova/Vesnina to enter quarters – US Open 2012
German-Chinese pair, Sabine Lisicki and Shuai Peng, upset the sixth seeded Russians, Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina, in a three-set thriller at the US Open 2012 on Monday. They penned down a 6-2, 3-6, 6-4 victory against the seeds to labour into the
quarter-finals at this final of the four Grand Slam events taking place in Corona Park in Queens, United States.
The unseeded tandem remained focused throughout the battle. Despite swaying from their path in the second set, they carved out the victory in two hours. As a result, Lisicki and Peng booked a spot in the final eight at this major hard court event taking
place from 27th August to 9th September.
Lisicki and Peng made a strong entry at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. They broke the seeds’ serve in the second game and jumped to a 3-0 lead. The German-Chinese pair held their remaining serves with conviction and capitalised on another
break chance in the last game to click the opener with a 6-2 win.
The in-form Russian tandem made a fitting reply in the follow-up set. They broke Lisicki and Peng’s serve twice to leap to a 5-1 lead. Regardless of squandering their serve in the eighth game, Makarova and Vesnina availed another break chance and clinched
the equaliser with a 6-3 score line.
The match could have gone in any direction but the German-Chinese junction re-gained their strength in the final set. They warded off both breakpoints they came across to pluck their entire serves. Lisicki and Peng required a single break opportunity in
the ninth game, eventually sealing the decider by winning six games to four.
Overall, the underdogs spilled more double faults and clobbered a lower first serve share of 62 per cent as opposed to their rivals’ 70 per cent. However, they impressively availed 42 out of 61 points on it and finished the match with 94 points.
Next in line for Lisicki and Peng are the third seeded Czechs, Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka. The Czechs tumbled 14th seeds, South Africa’s Natalie Grandin and Czech Republic’s Vladimira Uhlirova, in straight sets to set up this meeting.
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