Marion Bartoli and Vera Zvonareva clear their third round matches of the Sony Ericsson Open
World number 10, Marion Bartoli of France continued her brilliant run in the current year as she outclassed the unseeded Russian, Ekaterina Makarova in the third round of the Sony Ericsson Open at Miami, Florida on Sunday night.
The Frenchwoman wrapped up the straight sets victory convincingly at 6-0, 6-2, taking just 63 minutes of play.
The 15th seed Bartoli defeated Makarova for the second time in her career, as the Russian suffered defeat against her at Dubai International Championships last year. Bartoli registered her 19th victory of
the running WTA (Women’s Tennis Association) season at Miami, extending her head-to-head record against Makarova to 2-0.
Makarova appeared no real match for the in-form French, who blew away the Russian with the utmost ease. Bartoli served with 60 per cent accuracy in the match, cracking seven thudding aces and conceding just one double fault. She
came out firing in the opening set and stung three straight serve beaks to the Russian serve. Makarova was unable to hold serve in any of her games and submitted the opener to the strong French competitor in just 20 minutes of play.
Bartoli carried on her winning momentum in the next set and reeled of the opening four games of the second set by striking two break points. Makarova held serve for the first time in the match but the dominant French sealed off
the contest at 6-2 to advance to the round of 16 at Miami. Bartoli will square off against the world number three Vera Zvonareva of Russia to book a berth in the quarter-finals of the Sony Ericsson Open.
Zvonareva had a stiff competition against 28th seed Australian Garmila Groth in the third round, defeating her in straight sets, 7-6(4), 6-2, in 94 minutes to register her 15th WTA season win. Although both
contestants delivered first serve with around 50 per cent accuracy, a total of 18 aces were seen in the game, with 10 coming from Zvonareva’s racquet.
The opening set went to the wire as two serve breaks from both women took enforced a decisive tie breaker into play. The Russian took the decider with ease, bagging the first set at 7-6(4) to get one up in the contest.
The Aussie dropped her game drastically in the second set and appeared in all sort of confusion. Zvonareva exerted immense pressure upon her opponent by her power game and stung two serve breaks to cruise through the second set.
The Russian closed out the contest at 6-2 to move on to the next stage of the Sony Ericsson Open. She will encounter Marion Bartoli in the fourth round with Zvonareva leading the head-to-head record against the Frenchwoman by 8-2.
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