Lucie Safarova dumps Vera Zvonareva to qualify for the semi-final – Family Circle Cup 2012
World number 26, Lucie Safarova, dumped the ninth ranked Russian, Vera Zvonareva, to book a spot in the semi-final of the Family Circle Cup on Friday. She won the match in straight sets 6-3, 6-3 taking an hour and 25 minutes to
round off the quarter-final stage of the tournament.
She lost her first meeting in the third round of the Australian Open tournament last year but didn’t waste this opportunity to have her revenge. She was on top of her game providing no opportunity to the Russian to settle into
the atmosphere.
Both players broke each other’s serve in the opening two games of the match before registering serve holds. Scores moved to 2-2. The ninth seed Safarova broke her rival’s serve for the second time in the set to take the lead and
consolidated it with a thumping serve hold. Scores further tickled past to 4-2 in favour of the Czech.
Zvonareva was unable to win another breakpoint in the following games of the set. She tried hard but her luck was out. However, the opening set was rounded off in thunderous fashion by the Czech who broke serve for the third time
in the set.
It was a major upset in the making. Safarova further strengthen her grip on the match with an early breakthrough in the second half. She cruised past to a lead of 3-0 in no time and smashed her first serves in with majestic command.
The Russian had two opportunities break her opponent’s serve but she squandered both of them. It was a miserable performance from Zvonareva who looked out of form throughout the year; struggling from niggling injuries and unable
to win any title this season.
No more breakthroughs were witnessed in the set and the early break proved pivotal in deciding the winner of the match. The ninth seed Czech will take on the likes of the 14th seed Slovenian, Polona Hercog, in the semi-final
stage of the tournament. Hercog also stunned the superior ranked Russian, Nadia Petrova, to march on. It was all in all a very poor day for the Russian players.
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