Russia's Vera Zvonareva reaches Qatar Open final
World number three Vera Zvonareva defeated former world number one Jelena Jankovic of Serbia to book her place in the final of 2011 Qatar Ladies Open.
Zvonareva opened the first set on a brilliant note. She won the first game on Jankovic’s serve with four straight points to take complete control of the situation. She then won five of the next six games to finish the first set with a breadstick win. Her
opponent, who looked down and out, then staged a phenomenal come back to win the next set 6-2.
Jankovic served in the ninth game of the deciding set with the score tied at 4-4. Despite leading 40-0, she lost the game, conceding four successive points to hand over the advantage to her opponent. Soon after, Zvonareva completed a well deserved win on
her first match point.
A relieved Zvonareva said after the game, “Playing against Jelena is always tough. I wasn’t too worried about the score when she was three break points down in the ninth game. “. She added, “When you are playing the third set in a match you have to stay
focused all the time and play the best you can.”
On the other hand, Jankovic expressed her disappointment at letting the opportunity slip away in a post-match interview. The former world number one had a horrendous 2010, missing most of the tournaments due to injuries. She began 2011 with a first round
failure at the Medibank International.
Jankovic then continued her poor form at the Australian Open, losing to Shuai Peng in the second round. The Serbian next reached the semi-finals of Dubai Open where she was knocked out by Caroline Wozniacki; now she has fallen to another top player at the
$721,000 premier event in Qatar.
Zvonareva will face world number one Caroline Wozniacki in the final, who has been in great form and will be playing her second consecutive WTA final, following her Dubai Open win a week ago.
Zvonareva was looking forward to playing Wozniacki in the final. She said, “I always believe in myself, and I always believe if I can play my game and play my best tennis, I can beat anyone on the other side of the net.”
Wozniacki has a 4-3 head-to-head record against the Russian. She has come up victorious in her last two meetings with Zvonareva.
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