Petra Kvitova defeats Vera Zvonareva at the Mutua Madrid Open
Sixteenth Seeded Czech Petra Kvitova upset second seeded Russian Vera Zvonareva with a breadstick on Wednesday. She registered a 6-1, 6-4 victory over the 26-year-old Russian to advance into the quarter-finals of the 2011 Mutua
Madrilena Madrid Open.
Ranked 18 in the WTA Premier rankings, Kvitova trashed the Russian, ranked 15 places above her, in straight sets in just seventy-seven minutes. The Czech took revenge from her loss to Zvonareva at Melbourne Grand Slam and levelled
her head-to-head series against the Russian by 2-2.
21-year-old is in top form this season and clinched titles at Brisbane and Paris. However, after displaying tremendous skills at Paris, Kvitova’s formed dipped until she arrived at Park Manzanares. She re-formed her strategy to
trash Romanian Alexandra Dulgheru, South African qualifier Chanelle Scheepers and Zvonareva without losing a set.
The Czech held her serve in the first game plausibly and took the lead by 1-0. Although she lost the proceeding game, Kvitova went on savage mode to reel off next five games in a row and sealed the set with a breadstick. The Czech
saved all five breakpoints faced and converted two out of four breakpoint opportunities to her advantage to win easily.
After the Russian held her serve in the first game, Kvitova broke the Russian once to win the next three games in a row. She then held her remaining serves spectacularly until she lost her concentration in the eighth game to level
the scores at 4-4. The Czech quickly re-focused and broke Zvonareva’s serve in the very next game to eventually seal the set with a 6-4 score line.
She will next face the winner of the match between eighth seeded Russian Maria Sharapova and Slovak Dominika Cibulkova. Sharapova rallied through her previous opponents in three sets to reach this spot while the Slovak upset the
twelfth seeded Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova in straight sets in the first round. Cibulkova then reached this spot with a walkover win against the Hungarian Agnes Szavay.
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