Magdalena Rybarikova trashes Jie Zheng to move into title match – WANLIMA Women’s Open 2011
Eighth seed Magdalena Rybarikova of Slovakia eased past a local tennis star, Jie Zheng in straight sets at the WANLIMA International Women’s Open 2011, a WTA International tournament held on the outdoor hard courts in Guangzhou,
People’s Republic of China. She earned a 7-5, 6-3 success over the 28-year-old Chinese to secure a spot in the final round on Friday.
22-year-old Slovak required one hour and forty-four minutes dumping Zheng on their second meeting at this $220,000 event. She not only maintained her winning record and extended lead in the head-to-head series by 2-0 against the
Chinese but also advanced into the final round.
The Bratislava resident, Rybarikova smoothly held her opening serve but bleed early in the fifth game to trail 2-3. However, she roared back in the eighth game to tie the scores at 4-4. The Slovak then maintained her composure
to bag in remaining serves and broke again in the last game to seal the set by winning seven games to five.
She manifested a poor first serve share of 46 percent as compared to Chinese’s 75 percent but registered a spectacular 76 percent win on it. In addition to this, the Slovak saved two out of three breakpoints faced and converted
two out of six breakpoint opportunities to her advantage.
22-year-old Slovak unleashed a flurry of groundstrokes from the start of the final set and strike out first three games in a row. She then held her following serves with exquisite forehands from her arsenal of skills to jolt down
the set with a 6-3 victory. Rybarikova faced zero breakpoint and converted one out of two breakpoint chances to her advantage to win comfortably. Despite formulated a drastic first serve share of 44 percent as opposed to Zheng’s 86 percent; she earned a perfect
win on it.
Rybarikova confidently advanced into the final round to face the seventh seed, Chanelle Scheepers of South Africa. This would be Slovak’s third title round appearance, she previously triumphed at Birmingham in 2009 and at Memphis
this year.
Scheepers on the other hand advanced to a final round for the first time in a WTA event. She battled past top seeded Russian Maria Kirilenko in straight sets on their fourth meeting.
"It doesn't matter what round I'm in, I'm going to prepare for each match exactly the same, whether it's a final or a first round," said the blissful Scheepers. "Yesterday I also played a really long match and I finished pretty
late, so for me, it was all about getting ready for today. I got a massage. I had treatment. I got lots of food to eat. Tonight, it will be exactly the same."
Scheepers warded off ten out of fifteen breakpoints faced and converted six out of thirteen breakpoint chances to her advantage to seal the deal by a 7-5, 5-7, 6-4 wins in three hours and twenty-three minutes.
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