Samantha Stosur edges pass Vera Zvonareva in the quarter-final of the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix
In the clash between the two top ranked players, world number seven Samantha Stosur of Australia stood victorious against the third ranked Vera Zvonareva of Russia in the quarter-final of the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix being played
at the Porsche Tennis Arena at Stuttgart, Germany on Thursday. Fifth seeded Stosur concluded the nail-biter at 2-6, 6-3, 7-6(3), in two hours and thirty seven minutes to step into the first semi-final of the $721,000 WTA (Women’s Tennis Association) tournament.
27-year-old Australian continued her terrific run against world number three Zvonareva, beating her for the sixth consecutive time. Stosur registered her 11thwin of the running WTA season and extended her all-time head-to-head
lead against the Russian to 6-2. A brilliant display of steel nerves and sheer determination of Stosur bestowed victory on her, despite losing the opening set poorly. The Australian veteran remained focused in the game to bag the second set and then kept her
momentum to conclude victory in the third set tie breaker to dispense the second seed Zvonareva from the contest.
“This was the best match I had all year. She played well and I had to hang in there,” Stosur reflected in her post match reviews, “I’m very happy to get through that one. Coming from a set down, especially against someone like
Vera, one of the best players in the world the last year or two. It’s a big confidence booster. I’ve won two three-setters in a row now, I haven’t done that for many months. At the end of the day I’m focusing on playing good tennis, win or lose. I hope I can
do the same thing on Sunday.”
Zvonareva had a blistering start to the contest and it appeared at a time the Russian is well on her way to end her horrifying run against Stosur when she bagged the first set. The Russian looked in a brilliant form, and exhibited
some quality strokes to claim the opener at 6-2. Her wining momentum came to a halt in the next set when Stosur broke her at 4-3 and clinched the second set at 6-3.
It all came to the decisive third set, which went on neck-to-neck without any serve rbeak from both women. A tie breaker was enforced and Stosur rocketed away to 5-0 lead in it before Zvonareva nabbed three straight points. The
Aussie finally wrapped up victory at 7-6(3) to move to the semis of the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix. She will take on the German, Julia Goerges, who defeated her fellow compatriot Sabine Lisicki 6-4, 6-4, in the other quarter-final at Stuttgart.
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