Maria Kirilenko battles past Shuai Peng to reach the quarter-finals – Wimbledon Championships 2012
World number 19, Maria Kirilenko, rallied past the 26-year-old Chinese starlet, Shuai Peng, into the quarter-finals of the Wimbledon Championships on Monday. She bagged the win in three sets 6-1, 6-7(6), 6-3.
The two contenders were facing off after a gap of almost six years. Last time they played was way back in the second round of the China Open in Beijing and Peng edged past the Russian starlet in an epic three-setter. However, the
Russian had her revenge at All England Lawn Tennis Club and more importantly marched into the last eight of the tournament.
Peng started off well with a comprehensive serve hold and so did her rival. However, the remaining session of the first set was not satisfactory for the 34th ranked Chinese who failed to grab a single game; lost three
breakpoints on the trot and went down a set in just 28 minutes.
Despite losing the opening set in a miserable fashion, Peng stayed focused and won an early breakthrough in the second set to take a lead of 2-1. However, she couldn’t sustain the momentum and dropped the breakpoint in the sixth
game that levelled the scores at 3-3.
An exchange of breakpoints kept the score together at 5-5 and a serve hold at both ends enforced a tie-breaker round into play. The 17th seed Russian was on course to win the tie-break taking an early mini-break but
an onslaught from the Chinese held her at six points.
Stage was set for another thrilling battle in the final. Both players started off cautiously and bagged the first two serve games with no pressure at all. However, a tight breakthrough for the Russian in the sixth game gave her
a lead of 4-2.
Peng could just win a single point in the following return game and dropped another breakpoint that closed all doors of a comeback for her. It was a good contest and the deserving winner came out on top.
Talking about the Russian, Radwanska said, “We played a couple times against each other, but I think never on grass. Of course, she's a very consistent player. I have to play good tennis because this is the quarterfinals - everybody
is playing very well. I think it's going to be another big challenge."
Kirilenko will look to power down the third ranked Pole, Agnieszka Radwanska, to pull out an upset and make a surprising entry in the last four players of the tournament.
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