Petra Kvitova battles past Jie Zheng to reach the third round – French Open 2011
World number nine, Petra Kvitova booked her place in the third round of Roland Garros after a convincing straight sets victory over a disappointing Jie Zheng of China, who went off balance as soon she lost her first set. Zheng
who is ranked 80th in WTA (Women tennis Association) rankings list, couldn’t catch up with her opponent’s pace and lost the match in straight sets 6-4, 6-1.
The 21-year-old Czech looked determined, served exceptionally well and produced the right balance of attack to seal the match in just one hour and sixteen minutes. Zheng’s solid and powerful ground game looked erratic and messy
against Kvitova and she was no better in this match with the Czech player. It looked like the Chinese pro had lost trust in her shots and looked scared to go for her two-handed backhands against Kvitova. Zheng performed below par and completely disappointed
her fans as she failed to advance to the third round.
The first set of the match was relatively tough than the second one, although both were easy wins for the lanky lefty. Although Zheng registered twelve winners in the match, she also made eighteen unforced errors against them.
She completely looked jaded and did not show any resistance which could stop Kvitova from winning the first set.
The six feet tall, Kvitova commanded her racquet in an expert manner and made her Chinese opponent suffer like anything. She looked as fit as a fiddle and did not allow her Chinese opponent to get the better of her. Kvitova looked
totally cool during the first set and managed to bring up the match point at 5-4 and took it when Zheng floated a forehand beyond the baseline. Kvitova recorded 68 percent of points on her service, 47 percent of points on return and a total number of 34 of
points in total to race to a 6-4 lead.
Things went from bad to worse for the Cheng Du-based Zheng but she was unwilling to go down without a fight and responded to her Czech opponent at 1-1, but the Czech tennis ace immediately restored her advantage when the Chinese
put a forehand wide and allowed the Czech pro to keep her hopes alive at the 2011 Roland Garros.
Kvitova, emerging victorious today has improved her win loss mark to 31-6 so far. She now moves on ahead to face in-form Vania King of United States, who rallied from a first set down to beat Elena Baltacha of Great Britain. Vania
is ranked 115th as compared to Kvitova’s ninth spot.
Until she proves otherwise, Kvitova is the favourite going into the next round. Vania might delight her fans by taking a set, but Kvitova will probably make her way to the round of 16.
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