Maria Kirilenko squashes Monica Niculescu in the opening battle – Dubai Championships 2012
Russian beauty starlet, Maria Kirilenko, trashed the 29th ranked Romanian, Monica Niculescu, to book a berth in the second round of the Dubai Duty Free Championships. On Monday, both players locked horns for the
fourth time in the professional careers and the Russian took an hour and 24 minutes to oust the Romanian in straight sets 6-3, 6-0.
Kirilenko was trailing 1-2 in the head-to-head scores so it was somewhat a crucial encounter for her. She needed to win this in order to level the wins. The momentum was with the Romanian who had won the last two battles
in the Pilot Pen Tennis 2008 and China Open 2011. Kirilenko was up against Niculescu in the opening round battle of Dubai Championships 2007 and she won it in exactly the same score line as this match.
The match took off with successful holds at either ends before the first breakthrough went in favour of the Romanian who took the lead and consolidated it with a successful hold. Scores moved on to 3-1 in her favour.
Kirilenko stayed calm and fought back with a breakpoint in the sixth game to level the scores at 3-3. Suddenly the momentum shifted to her favour and she ousted her opponent to register another breakpoint that swirled the
set into her favour. She was serving to take the set and did it with style with a stunning winner down the line.
The second set was a bagel for the Russian, who didn’t waste a second to plonk her opponent. She utilized her guile and pace to shift gears at several occurrences making it extremely hard for the Romanian to adjust to the
speed. One after another, she broke three times in succession and held her serve at the other end to register a resounding triumph over Niculescu.
After the match, Kirilenko was interviewed about her unassailable comeback and she stated, “One year I played against Niculescu here on centre court and I won, 63 60, the same. Today there were some very close games I lost
at the start, but I was doing everything right and coming to the net. She was better in those games but I continued to play the same way, then it was better. I liked my forehand a lot today. I was playing it well from each position on the court, I think. I
was enjoying that shot today and having a lot of fun out there."
Kirilenko faces-off against the winner of the match between Ana Ivanovic and Francesca Schiavone.
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