Mirza/Vesnina pounce Hlavackova/Hradecka to reach the final showdown – BNP Paribas Open 2012
Second seeded duo, India’s Sania Mirza and Russia’s Elena Vesnina, tumbled over the third seeded Czechs, Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka, in a three set thriller at the BNP Paribas Open 2012 on Thursday. They nudged up a 5-7, 7-5, 10-3 victory over
the Czechs to advance into the title-round at this Premier Mandatory event held in California, United States.
The Indo-Russian tandem stayed on track to defend their title at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden after overpowering the lower seeds in their third encounter. After pocketing the match in an hour and 45-minute battle, Mirza and Vesnina not only avenged their
loss at the title-round of the French Open but also took lead in the head-to-head series against the Czechs.
Hlavackova and Hradecka made a nervy start at this WTA (Women’s Tennis Association) hard court event and lost their serve in the opening game. In spite of recovering in the very next game, they received another dent in the third game and went 1-2 down. However,
the Czechs re-focused their strategy and winded up the next four games in a row. The lower ranked team lost their edge again in the ninth game but got the breakthrough in the last game, ultimately sealing the opener with a 7-5 win.
Mirza and Vesnina kept their losing ways in the following set and after gifting away their opening serve, they fell 0-3. However, they did not panic after that and maintained consistency in their game. After the Indo-Russian junction was 2-5 down, they unleashed
flurry of groundstrokes to stroke out the following five games in a row, subsequently bagging the set by winning seven games to five.
The match was poised at a knife edge but the defending champions carried their rhythm. They cruised to a 7-0 lead before their rivals could hold on. Mirza and Vesnina then maintained their intensity and pulled out the decider with a 10-3 score line.
Next in line for the second seeds is the conqueror of the match between top seeded Americans, Liezel Huber and Lisa Raymond, and the Czech collaboration of Iveta Benesova and Barbora Zahlavova Strycova.
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