Maria Kirilenko strains past Jie Zheng to pass round one – Qatar Ladies Open 2012
Russian diva, Maria Kirilenko, squashed the impressive performer from China, Jie Zheng, in an epic three-setter 6-3, 3-6, 6-3. The contest was played during the opening round of the Qatar Ladies Open tournament in Doha.
The 25th ranked Russian ousted the 28-years-old Chinese in an hour and 56 minutes. She was under a lot of pressure to turn the tables on her opponent, having lost five of the last six encounters against
the Chinese. It was way back in 2003 when the Russian won against Zheng in second qualifying round of the US Open. Since that time, the Chinese tennis ace is plonking the Russian on all platforms, registering an emphatic head-to-head lead of 5-1 which was
reduced to 5-2 after this match.
Both players swapped breakpoints at the start of the match and registered successful holds to push the scores at 2-2. Kirilenko held her serve to take the lead and consolidated her position with an emphatic winner down the
line to win the second breakpoint of the set. With not much drama in the following games, the set was easily bagged by the Russian tennis ace who looked the better player right from the start.
The Chinese superstar is famous for her comebacks from a set down stage. Similar scenario was set up for her and she replied brilliantly by bringing the match back into the balance with a successful second set triumph. She
encountered her opponent aggressively and played some mind-boggling tennis shots to fight back from a break down stage.
She was trailing by 1-3 by the end of the fourth game but bounced back to win two successive breakpoints. The stage was set for another cracking third set battle between the two breathtaking performers in the field of women
tennis.
Kirilenko started the final set in despair; losing her opening serve and trailing 0-2 down at the start. She fought well to win the break back and levelled the scores at 2-2. The pressure was not eased on her as the Chinese
superstar broke serve again to reclaim the lead. She held her nerves and won a break back in the next game. Spectators in the arena were thrilled to witness such a close battle between the two prolific tennis performers.
Last three games were ironically dominated by the Russian who looked weaker of the two performers at the start of the final set. She won a vital breakthrough in the eighth game and booked a berth in the next round against
the fourteen seed, Svetlana Kuznetsova.
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