Petra Kvitova, Vera Zvonareva advance into the third round – Wimbledon Championships 2011
Czech tennis-pro Petra Kvitova thrashed out Great Britain’s Anne Keothavong 6-2, 6-1 on Wednesday to make it to the third round of 2011 Wimbledon Tennis Championships in United Kingdom. The 21-year-old looked in commanding touch at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club as she required only 1 hour and 5 minutes dispatching her opponent.
Seeded 8th at the prestigious Women’s Tennis Association Majors tournament, Petkovic made a great start to the match. Serving with control and precision, she created all sorts of problems for her opponent in the opening set. Despite making 11 unforced errors in the opener, the Czech was able to hit her way out of the trouble with 17 winners. Taking control of the long rallies, she secured 76 per cent of the points on her first serve. Breaking the serve twice, she raced to an impassable lead and then converted the very first set point to take the set score lead 1-0.
Implementing hit and volley tactics successfully, she won six out six net points in the set. Keothavong on the other hand, adopted a very defensive strategy and hence paid the price. Wasting three break points in the set, she let the Czech dominate and dictate terms. Her low first serve conversion also played a big part in her defeat as she was unable to force errors from Kvitova.
The second set also followed a pretty similar trend with Kvitova breaking the serve early to establish complete control over the situation. The emerging Czech tennis star continued to display some high quality tennis and broke her opponent twice more in the set to ensure her victory in straight sets.
Earning comfortable wins in her opening two matches at the championships, Kvitova will be looking to extend her great run on the green surface by being more aggressive and consistent.
Number two seed Vera Zvonareva also booked her third round place with a 6-1, 7-6 (5) victory over compatriot Elena Vesnina.
The Russian made a strong start to the match as she broke the serve three times to claim the opening set 6-1. Vesnina’s forehand and backhand winners landed outside the lines on several occasions, putting more and more pressure on her.
Looking for an entry back into the contest, Vesnina put up a brilliant fight in the second set. Hitting 13 winners all over the court, she broke the serve at regular intervals to gain some sort of momentum in the match. However Zvonareva concentrated on her own game play and managed to force 17 errors from the American to end the match in straight sets.
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