Nadia Petrova outsmarts Lucie Safarova to clear round three – US Open 2012
Former world number three, Nadia Petrova, continued to impress at the hard courts of New York. On the eve of Friday, she dumped the superior seeded Czech star, Lucie Safarova, in straight sets 6-4, 7-5 to qualify for the fourth
round of the US Open Championship.
Both players had contested five matches before this encounter in their professional careers. However, the head-to-head scores of 4-1 in favour of the Russian clearly showed that the 25-year-old Czech has always struggled against
her. She had the upper hand entering into the match despite the superior ranked of her competitor; made it clear that she is out there to prove her worth and means business.
Petrova started the battle with a serve hold and exerted immense pressure on her rival, courtesy to two back-to-back winners that allowed her to win a breakpoint in just the second game of the match. She made no mistake in ousting
her opponent and powering down to a lead of 3-0.
Both players held their serves in the following three games before the Czech fought back into the contest with the help of a timely breakthrough. She smashed three startling winners to equalize the scores at 4-4 and put the set
back into the balance.
However shortly after the 22nd ranked Russian held her serve, she didn’t allow her opponent to keep the set alive and earned the critical breakthrough that ended the first set in her favour. The odds were running against
her seeing the recent form of her rival but the proceedings were hinting at a different result altogether.
No drama was witnessed for the first six games of the second set. Both players capitalized on their serves and the see-saw battle pushed the scoreboard to 3-3. However, the change in proceedings thrilled the crowd for few minutes;
swap of breakpoints kept the scores together but gave a nightmare to the Russian who was first to fall for the trap.
The Russian continued to press and finally earned the pivotal breakthrough in the 12th game of the set that confirmed her fourth round clash with the number one Russian star, Maria Sharapova.
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