Petra Martic turn the tables on Shuai Peng in the quarter-final – Malaysian Open 2012
World number 66, Petra Martic, capsized the third seed Chinese superstar, Shuai Peng, in the quarter-final stage of the BMW Malaysian Open on Friday. She bounced back a set down to oust the superior seed participant in two hours
27 minutes; registering the scores 4-6, 7-6(3), 6-4.
A sloppy start to the match witnessed serve holds from both ends. No pressure was exerted from any contestant on her competitor and scores smoothly tickled over to 4-4. Peng served the following game and held the pressure serve
to progress the scores 5-4. With anxiety swirling back on the fifth seed Croatian, Peng utilized her guile to dump Martic in the opening set.
The second set battle was not much different from the opener, except the swap of breakpoints at the midst of the set to tie the scores at 2-2. It was not a taxing battle at all, with both players just capitalizing on their serves
and not imposing any threat on their rival’s serves. Scores progressed to 6-6 with not much drama and a tie-breaker round was enforced to decide the set.
A see-saw battle continued between the two contenders in the initial part of a tie-breaker before the fifth seed crushed her opponent down with a couple of back-to-back eye-startling winners down the line. It was obvious that Peng
was going to have a rough ride this evening, given the exuberant display of composure and stamina of her opponent.
It was an enthralling battle in the final set. Both players started off slowly but paced their way up as the games passed by. Scores were pushed to 3-2 in favour of the fifth seed, who prepared for an all-round onslaught in the
following game. A sudden outbreak from the Croatian took Peng with surprise who faulted on her serve and gifted away the breakpoint but she fought back immediately to win a breakthrough and levelled the scores at 4-4 with a comprehensive serve hold.
However, another cracking display of mind-startling shot making snatched the semi-final berth from the match favourite Chinese contestant. It was such a dramatic turnaround that Peng stayed in shock for a quiet long time before
marching ahead and shaking hands with Martic.
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