Nuria Vives/ Arantxa Santonja win in the Doubles quarterfinal – Collector Swedish Open 2011
In a grueling and intense Collector Swedish Open quarterfinal match on Friday, the Spanish duo of Nuria Llagostera Vives and Arantxa Parra Santonja finally found a way to put away a dogged pair of Eleni Daniilidou and Polona Hercog
6-4, 4-6, 10-5 to reach the semi-final of the tournament.
The Spanish duo proved to be difficult opponents for the Greek-Slovenian pair of Daniilidou and Hercog as their opponents delivered an awe-inspiring display on serve, and in particular, some jaw dropping defensive tennis which
frustrated Daniilidou and Hercog no end.
It was a good opportunity for Hercog to reach the Doubles semi-finals for the first time in her career, but it turned out to be an off day for the Slovenian and her partner Daniilidou. Nevertheless, Hercog tried her best and did
not let the second chance go begging, winning the second set with six games to their opponent’s four. But, later in the final set Hercog struggled with her first serve throughout and Daniilidous’s feeble shots at the net only helped the cause of the Spanish
duo.
The third-seeded duo of Llagostera and Santonja, expectedly, was aggressive from the start of the match and had the all the answers at almost every turn. They broke first to take an early lead and converted four of nine break point
opportunities, a statistic that was a testament to their brutal serving and mental toughness.
The strong show by Llagostera turned out to be the real difference between the two teams as she had a great command over her shots and her powerful ground strokes were sufficient enough to overcome a second set jitter against Daniilidou
and Hercog to enter the semi-final of the tournament.
Llagostera and Santonja wrapped up their quarterfinal victory with 57 percent of points on their service, 50 percent of points on return and 53 of points in total. By contrast, Daniilidou and Hercog lagged behind with 50 percent
on service, 43 percent on return and 47 percent of points in total.
Up next for the Spanish duo is the Russian-Georgian duo of Vesna Dolonts and Anna Tatishvili in the semi-final of the tournament. Dolonts and Tatishvili made light work of the Romanian-Czech duo of Sorana Cirstea and Lucie Safarova
to make it this far.
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