Nadia Petrova sidelines Jie Zheng in the Round Rubber – Tournament of Champions 2012
Former world number three, Nadia Petrova, hammered the 29th ranked Chinese ace, Jie Zheng, on Wednesday to begin her campaign at the Qatar Airways Tournament of Champions in Sofia. She posted the emphatic straight sets
score line of 6-3, 6-3 after a battle of an hour and 33 minutes.
In an interview at the end of the encounter, Petrova proclaimed, “But Wednesday's win was anything but dominant. The score may look a little easy, but it didn't feel easy to me at all. I started well but I wasn't feeling great
on my serve - I didn't really feel in control of my game, and she broke my serve three times in the first set alone, which was disappointing. But I'm happy with my returning, and I'm hoping to serve better tomorrow.”
Petrova was a bit sloppy with her serves, especially the second deliveries. She was only able to convert 28 percent of the second serves on Wednesday which is a very low ratio in such an elite tournament. She needs to control her
serves better and try to capitalize on them.
Both players swapped breakpoints in succession at the start of the opening set. Scores moved to 2-2 without any damage being done to either party. Zheng failed to hold serve again and donated a breakpoint that was smartly protected
by the 30-year-old Russian with the only serve hold of the set. Both players traded breakthroughs in the following three games and the opening set was clinched by the tall Russian lady.
It seemed that both players were easily breaking each other’s serve. No control was shown from either end. The second set started with a tight serve hold for the Russian which was followed up with three consecutive breakthroughs,
giving a stupendous lead of 3-1 to Petrova.
Finally, some command on serves was demonstrated by both athletes and the scores were pushed to 5-3 in favour of the Russian. She had an opportunity to serve out of the set and she did but not before the 29-year-old Chinese star
showed some immense courage to keep the match alive for few moments.
Petrova was not the only successful Russian on Wednesday. Her doubles partner, Maria Kirilenko, showed immense talent and willpower to fight the crowd as well as the local number one, Tsvetana Pironkova. She won the match in straight
sets as well and commenced the tour with a success.
Nadia Petrova and Maria Kirilenko will face each other on Thursday.
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