Petra Kvitova vs Vera Zvonareva – Match Preview: TEB BNP Paribas WTA Championships 2011
The eight competitors at the TEB BNP Paribas WTA Championships were divided into their two Round Robin groups; White and Red at the official draw ceremony on Sunday night. The year-end Championships are set to begin on Tuesday
the 25th of October 2011.
The two Red group competitors to duel against each other are the 2011 Wimbledon champion, Petra Kvitova and sixth seeded Russian Vera Zvonareva. The two have competed five times against each other prior to this event, in their
head-to-head series Zvonareva is leading the match with three wins over Kvitova’s two.
The first time they met was in 2009 at BNP Paribas Open held in Indian Wells. The two had battled it out on hard courts until finally Zvonareva emerged victorious in straight sets. However after a year the two battled swords on
clay courts of Rome where Kvitova defeated Zvonareva during the first round.
In 2011 both the contestants faced each other three times. Initiating with the Australian Open, the players took up the gauntlet during the quarterfinal of the event and rising to the occasion was Zvonareva by ousting Czech Kvitova
in straight sets.
At this point neither player had achieved two successive wins. Nevertheless, it was Kvitova’s turn to bag a game and she did at the Madrid Open during the fourth round. The last time the challengers convened was at the Tokyo Pan
Pacific Open. The challengers had fought each other on hard courts and Zvonareva came out victorious.
Current world number 3 Kvitova flabbergasted the tennis world in July with her maiden Grand Slam triumph at Wimbledon. She is now a debutant at the yearend Championships with not just a strong chance but a real time contender-ship.
This season Kvitova has enhanced her game multi folds and went on to bagging five WTA titles.
Moreover, the Czech is one of the few players to have recorded wins over almost all top ten players including Kim Clijsters and Maria Sharapova. She ended her three month title drought by bagging the Generali Ladies Linz Open and
conjured a much needed confidence just ahead of the yearend Championships. With such a strong form, Kvitova is expected to create a swirl and has the ability to overcome her group mates at the Round Robin stages.
On the other hand, Zvonareva has had an inconsistent year and even though, much was expected from the Russian, she was unable to rise to the occasion. Nevertheless, Zvonareva is a powerhouse, who made it to two Grand slam finals
last year, this year she settled with a semi final finish in the major arena.
Although, Zvonareva made it to several tour event finals, she was only able to clog two WTA titles; one at Baku and the other at Doha. Currently ranked as world number 6, Zvonareva rounded off the semi final line up last year,
and is expected to repeat the feat this year.
Most tennis experts and gurus expect Kvitova to bag the match; however, the former world number two should not be underestimated and has a lot more up her sleeve to be written off before the match.
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