Maria Kirilenko beats Heather Watson to reach the last 16 – London Olympics 2012
World number 15, Maria Kirilenko, ended the dream run of the 69th ranked Briton, Heather Watson, in the second round of the London Olympics on Tuesday. She scuttled past the 20-year-old booming starlet in straight sets
6-3, 6-2 to advance into the pre-quarterfinal stage of the tournament.
The opening set witnessed a traditional start with both players hanging on to their serve games in the first four games. However, the deadlock was broken by the 14th seed Russian who broke serve on the second allotted
chance in the fifth game and took a lead of 3-2.
Kirilenko held her serve to further cement her position in the set and more importantly pile pressure on her rival who trailed 2-4 by that time. An exchange of breakthroughs in the following two games helped the Russian to retain
the lead of two games and push the scores to 5-3.
Watson couldn’t handle the pressure and dropped another breakpoint in the following game that proved to be the final action from the first set of the match.
The second set started off in a stunning fashion. Firstly, it was the number one Briton who was on the verge of clinching a breakpoint in the opening game but the 25-year-old Russian fought back to save a breakpoint and hold serve.
Following that instance, Kirilenko pounced on her rival in the following game and converted a breakpoint to take a lead of 2-0. A serve hold to love further enhanced her position and the scores moved on to 3-0 in her favour.
Both players hung on to their respective serves for the following four games that forced Watson into a ‘do or die’ situation as she trailed 2-5. She was serving to stay in the set but couldn’t handle the onslaught of her rival
and bowed down to a visitor that left the local crowd dejected.
However, the spectators were happy to see such a startling talent at their disposal especially considering that Watson is just 20 years old and still has a lot of time to learn some special traits of tennis. She needs to be smart
with her shot selection and more importantly keep the point alive by playing simple returns instead of trying something different every time.
Maria Kirilenko is into the round of last 16 at Olympics and she will square off against the hard-hitting 24th ranked German beauty queen, Julia Goerges.
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