Nadia Petrova stuns Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the third round – Family Circle Cup 2012
Seeded at number 13 in the tournament draw, Russian veteran, Nadia Petrova, registered a comprehensive victory over the eighth seed wildcard entrant, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, in the third round of the Family Circle Cup on Thursday.
The 29-year-old Russian dumped her fellow compatriot in straight sets, 6-1, 6-4, to march into the quarter-final rounds of the WTA (Women’s Tennis Association) Premier-level event in Charleston, USA.
The world number 35, Petrova, displayed her vintage class once again and absolutely outshined superior-ranked Pavlyuchenkova in the contest. She had no real trouble in the opening set and raced through the games to pocket it with
a breadstick. The world number 22 showed some late resistance in the second set but it wasn’t sufficient to halt the impetus of Petrova, who was hitting the ball cleanly throughout the match. The 13th seed Russian cruised to victory in style and
improved her flawless record against Pavlyuchenkova to 3-0 in the head-to-head series.
Although Petrova delivered merely 54 per cent of her first serve on target, she bagged 19 out of 28 points on it and broke her opponent’s serve five out of nine times en route to victory. She backed up her serve game with impressive
return shots and clinched 19 out of 35 points to take the better of her opponent. The eighth seed Russian could merely register two out of three serve breaks in the entire matchup to finish on the losing side in the end.
"I think the last couple of tournaments she was out in the early rounds, so I'm sure it affected her confidence today," Petrova said of Pavlyuchenkova. "I also didn't see a coach today with her so I think it's difficult just to
be out there alone. She had a good season last year and there's a lot for her to defend this year, so maybe she kind of feels the pressure a little bit. Maybe it affects her tennis."
Petrova will face Slovenia’s Polona Hercog in the quarter-final battle of the Family Circle Cup. 14th seed Hercog made a huge upset in the third round when she outplayed the French number one contestant, Marion Bartoli,
to book a battle with Petrova.
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