Nadia Petrova brushes away Alexa Glatch to reach the quarter-finals – Mercury Insurance Open 2012
Russian veteran, Nadia Petrova, eased her way to the quarter-finals of the Mercury Insurance Open after dumping the 22-year-old American contender, Alexa Glatch, in the second round clash on Wednesday. The fourth seed Russian wrapped
up the proceedings in straight sets, 6-4, 6-3, to register her 21st victory of the running season.
Currently holding the 21st spot in the WTA (Women’s Tennis Association) Premier Rankings, Petrova is labouring extremely hard to get back her vintage form. She has already bagged a WTA title this season and cruised into
the quarter-final draw in Carlsbad, USA, to aim for her 12th career championship title. She was facing Glatch for the first time and faced no real challenge in disposing her off the tournament in an assertive manner.
It was a fairly poised contest at the start but Petrova kept building up her pace to surpass her opponent in the end. Glatch evenly met the Russian in most aspects of the game but her inability to cash in precious opportunities
in the match proved extremely taxing. She had two vital break points in the contest but frittered away both of them, while suffering three out of seven cracking ones from Petrova to finish on the losing side.
The Russian fourth seed was brilliant on her serve, banging in 60 per of the first serve on target and winning 25 out of 29 points on it. She took off the contest in a cautious manner and held her opening three serves to take the
scores to 3-3. Petrova delivered the first blow in the seventh game to break into a 4-3 lead and kept pressing her opponent to spill more unforced errors. She faced a deuce in the eighth game of the set but held her serve to sustain her lead, eventually bagging
the opener at 6-4.
Glatch tried to recover from her slump of form but couldn’t convert any of the two break points she crafted in the following set. She managed to hold serve in the first three games but an all-round onslaught from Petrova left her
stranded. The Russian veteran nailed two successive break points in the seventh and ninth games to draw curtains for the 22-year-old American, concluding the match at 6-3 to enter the final-eight of the tournament.
Petrova will next face the other unseeded American, Varvara Lepchenko, in the quarter-finals. Lepchenko stunned the eighth seeded South African, Chanelle Scheepers, 6-4, 6-2, in the second round.
Tags: