Samantha Stosur powers past Vera Zvonareva in the quarterfinals – AEGON International 2011
Vera Zvonareva of Russia suffered a major setback in her quest to reach the semi-final stage of AEGON International after a disappointing and crushing defeat, 6-4, 6(4)-7, 4-6 by Samantha Stosur of Australia.
The Russian No. 1 was presumably brimming with confidence after the disposal of Serena Williams on Thursday, but it was a very languid and poor performance from the Russian in all components of her game. Despite showing some flashes
of her A game in the beginning of the match, the world number three was nowhere near her vulnerability in the remainder part of the match. Stosur, on the other hand, had a lot of motivation, varying her serve excellently and picking her moments to attack with
gusto.
After winning the opener, the 26-year-old never recovered and totally succumbed when the Aussie started to step up the level of her game for the first time. The Russian player was misfiring frequently, as was her trademark backhand
down the line. As the nervy Russian struggled to find her range and rhythm, Aussie’s tennis was tremendously well and thought out, using her two-handed backhand to devastating effect. Keeping each other guessing with excellent variation of placement and spin,
both Women pushed the set into a tie-breaker. However, it was the Aussie who turned out to be the victor and looked very pleased as she was able to make it through.
The Russian crowd was subdued but they encourage Zvonareva to fight back in the third set. However, Zvonareva’s tennis seemed to crumple in a heap as her serve remained riddled with inconsistencies and her trademark two-handed
backhand was starting to unravel with plenty of unforced errors. She remained unable to hold on to her serve in the tenth game of the decided and lost the match with four games to six. In Fact, Stosur should be credited for all this, as she played bigger points
more efficiently than Zvonareva.
With this win, the 27-year-old has definitely gained some much-needed boost for the Wimbledon Championships, where she has been installed as a tenth seed.
“It is always nice to win matches in a lead-up tournament before a grand slam, these three matches have been good. So win or lose tomorrow, I will be feeling very good going into Wimby,” said Stosur.
The skilful Aussie now moves on ahead to face Marion Bartoli of France, who reached the quarterfinal after her Belarusian opponent Victoria Azarenka announced retirement due a thigh strain.
Stosur will be facing Bartoli for the fourth time and their head-to-head record is standing at 2-1 in Aussie’s favour. Both Bartoli and Stosur are all-court players. So, expect a three-set affair, with a slight edge going to Stosur
due to a lead in their head-to-head series.
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