Serena Williams fails to dethrone Vera Zvonareva in the second round – AEGON International 2011
Serena Williams’s hopes of adding the first title here at the AEGON International came to an end yesterday when the American tennis ace was beaten 3-6, 6(5)-7, 5-7 by the top seed, Vera Zvonareva of Russia in the second round of
the tournament.
Serena and Zvonareva have met seven times in the past with Serena normally unbothered by the Russian. However, the Russian tennis ace made a tremendous change in her game against the American and managed to manoeuvre Serena out
of the tournament in three hours and twelve minutes.
Zvonareva have been biding her time for a year, just waiting for a chance like this to avenge the lost of her 2010 Wimbledon final round defeat, where the American tennis ace battled past the Russian to win her fourth title at
the tournament.
Williams, who was making her comeback after a foot injury and blood clot in her lung, was able to stay toe-to-toe with the world number three and that does show a very high level of play. However, she could not regain the form
she displayed in her first match against the Bulgarian, Tsvetana Pironkova and allowed the Russian to reduce the deficit in her head-to-head series to 2-6.
After losing the first set, the Russian tennis ace continued to play it cool and did not reveal her insecurities regarding her win. Zvonareva managed to regain her composure and played Williams at her own game to nab the following
sets.
Although Williams managed to serve the match at 5-4 in the second set, she executed a double-fault on the break point and got her second set over with five games to seven. However, the former world number one still managed to display
plenty of her famous stubbornness and braveness in coming back from 5-2 down to pull level in the decider, but unfortunately, the former world number one could not keep up the revival and lost the decider, five games to seven.
Therefore, it was something of an inefficient victory for the world number three, who was pushed to the limits, especially by someone who hung up her racquet for almost a year. Nevertheless, the Russian tennis ace would be very
glad over her victory against the American. With this win, Zvonareva has extended her year-to-date win/loss mark to 29/10 matches and now moves on ahead to face seventh seeded Samantha Stosur of Australia in the quarterfinals of the tournament.
Both women are into the quarterfinal with only one set loss to Zvonareva, and no lost set so far to the Aussie in the tournament. The winner of the tournament will likely face Victoria Azarenka in the semi-finals.
Despite the threat posed by Stosur, Zvonareva has a better history at the tournament, having reached the semi-finals for four times in her career. In, Contrast, Stosur is a two-times semi-finalist. They will meet for the ninth
time in their career with the Aussie leading their head-to-head series to 6-2.
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