Mattek-Sands/ Shaughnessy defeated Huber/ Petrova in the doubles quarter-final of the BNP Paribas Open
Eighth seeded American pair of Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Meghann Shaughnessy outplayed the third seeded duo of Liezel Huber of the United States and Nadia Petrova of Russia in the quarter-final of the doubles category of the BNP
Paribas Open at Indian Wells, California on Wednesday night. The American team concluded the contest in straight sets, 6-4, 6-3, in one hour and twenty one minutes to book a berth in the semi-finals of the tournament.
Mattek-Sands and Shaughnessy combined their efforts brilliantly to edge past their opponents and get closer to a title shot at Paribas Open. They played with excellent coordination, assisting each other to overcome their rivals
in the game. An exemplary performance from the American duo ejected the third seeded pair out of the tournament and move on to the next round.
Like any other doubles match, the contest was stuffed with short rallies and a number of net points. Mattek-Sands and Shaughnessy converted plenty of juicy net volleys into fiery cross-court winners to exert pressure over their
opponents. Both players committed equal number of double faults, but the America team clinched 59 out of 112 total points in the game to seal victory.
Mattek-Sands and Shaughnessy had an aggressive start to the opener, executing assertive cross-court strokes to pressurize their opponents. Although they served with a mere 52 per cent accuracy, the American pair took 20 of 31 serve
points in the first set. Mattek-Sands and Shaughnessy crafted two break opportunities and availed one of them to lead 5-4, while Huber and Petrova couldn’t sting a serve break to the opponents and eventually crumbled at 4-6 in the opening set.
The American duo uplifted its first serve percentage to 68 in the next set and bagged 56 per cent serve points in total. Mattek-Sands and Shaughnessy were very agile to exchange their positions during rallies and developed good
hard-line strategy to undertake their opponents. However, they appeared a bit sloppy in converting break chances in the second set. Mattek-Sands and Shaughnessy were bestowed with eight opportunities to crack a serve break but the Americans merely cashed in
three of them.
Neither of the pairs committed a double fault in the second set. Mattek-Sands and Shaughnessy continued to play aggressive error-free tennis to conclude the second set at 6-3, making their way to the semi-final of the Paribas Open.
Mattek-Sands and Shaughnessy will be taking on the sixth seeded pair of Victoria Azarenka of Belarus and Maria Kirilenko of Russia in the semi-final round at Indian Wells. Azarenka and Kirilenko stood victorious against the wildcard
pair of Jelena Jankovic of Serbia and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia, defeating them in straight sets 6-4, 7-5, to make it to the semi-final of the event.
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