Maria Kirilenko flashes past Iryna Bremond into quarterfinal – WANLIMA Women’s Open 2011
Top seeded Russian Maria Kirilenko swat past French Iryna Bremond with a breadstick at the WANLIMA Guangzhou International Women’s Open 2011, a WTA International event held on the outdoor hard courts in Guangzhou, China. She registered
a 6-3, 6-1 victory over the Frenchwoman to secure a quarter-final spot on Wednesday.
World number 28, Kirilenko required only eighty minutes earning a straight set victory over the Frenchwoman, ranked 84 spots below her in the Sony Ericsson WTA Premier rankings, to advance in this tournament. She not only secured
a last eight spot but also took lead in the head-to-head series by 1-0 against Bremond.
24-year-old Russian made a shaky start after entering the Chinese hard court. She lost an early serve but quickly counter attacked in the fourth game to level the scores at 2-2. Kirilenko then kept remaining serves and broke Frenchwoman’s
serve again in the eighth game to clinch the opener with a 6-3 score line.
Regardless of coughing more errors and four double faults, she clobbered a higher first serve share of 61 percent as compared to the Frenchwoman’s 52 percent and registered an impressive 76 percent win on it. In addition to this,
Kirilenko failed to fend off one out of two breakpoints faced and converted two out of four breakpoint opportunities to her advantage.
Kirilenko went into savage mode from the beginning of the final set. She unleashed barrage of powerful forehands and backhands to reel off first three games in a row before Bremond broke back. However, she continued rolling the
balls expertly onto the lines to wipe out the next three games in a row and earned a breadstick.
Tournament’s highest ranked player, Kirilenko improved her game and stats. She manifested a better first serve share, spilled no double faults and cashed in on all four breakpoints faced. The Russian also saved two out of three
breakpoints faced and registered a plausible 67 percent win on her first serve share.
Next up for Kirilenko is the Ukrainian Tetiana Luzhanska who battled past Chinese qualifier Yi-Jing Zhao in a three set thriller to reach this spot.
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