Nadia Petrova breezes past Shuai Peng in the quarterfinal – Tournament of Championships 2011
Russian Nadia Petrova flogged Chinese Shuai Peng in the quarterfinal of the Tournament of Champions 2011.
The two rivals had battled it out on indoor hard courts of Bali International Convention Centre in Bali, Indonesia and after just one hour and twenty nine minutes Petrova outshone Peng in straight sets of 6-4, 6-3 on Thursday the
3rd of November 2011.
Peng commenced the first round of the match after she had won the service toss and she successfully held her serve to open the scoreboard at 1-0. Following at her heals was Petrova, who too held her serve and eased herself on
to the scoreboard at 1-1. In the following four games, the players broke each other back-to-back and the score tied at 3-3 by the end of the sixth game.
Subsequently, in the next two games the two challengers once more matched a blow for a blow and the score balanced out at 4-4 at the end of the eighth game. However, in the ninth game Peng came under pressure and she double faulted
on her second serve to gift a crucial game to Petrova. Mean while, the Russian served for the set and smashed a marvellous backhand winner down the line to accomplish the opening set with a 6-4 victory.
The second set of the match was also commenced by Peng and this time she got off to bad start as she was unable to hold her serve. On the other hand, Petrova scooped two consecutive games to take a mini lead of 2-0 on the scoreboard.
However, Peng was not ready to throw in the towel and made a return with a hold of serve and then by breaking back in the fourth game, she tied the score at 2-2.
At the end of the sixth game, the two once more broke each other one after the other and the score had levelled at 3-3. It was extremely unfortunate as Peng once more came under stress and this time she erred, gifting a game to
Petrova at the end of the seventh game. In the following two games Petrova repeated the feat and had sealed her victory of the set and the match.
Petrova was able to reserve a spot in the semi final of the tournament where she will be facing either defending Champion Ana Ivanovic or fourth seeded Italian Roberta Vinci.
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