Serena Williams slays Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova to reach round three – Mutua Madrid Open 2012
World number nine, Serena Williams, slaughtered the Russian star, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, with a breadstick at the Mutua Madrid Open 2012 on Tuesday. She jolted down a 6-2, 6-1 victory against the 20-year-old to cruise into the third round at this blue
clay court event held in Madrid, Spain.
The ninth seed re-created her old magic to crush Pavlyuchenkova in straight sets in their third meeting. After earning this glory, Williams extended her lead in the head-to-head series by 3-0 against the world number 25 and booked a place in the round of
16 at this WTA Premier Mandatory event.
"I'm serving and moving well. I'm playing pretty good right now," Williams reflected after her match. "But I still feel I'm doing everything just okay - I really feel I can keep learning from playing on clay. I want to keep working on things and try to do
them better. I really do love this surface and want to keep winning."
Williams entered Park Manzanares with self assurance and drew the first blood in the fourth game to climb at 4-1. She slid remaining serves and cashed in another break chance in the last game to clinch the opener with a 6-2 score line. The higher ranked
competitor was never challenged with any breakpoint and sought seven break opportunities to dominate.
The American number one kept momentum rolling into the proceeding set and kept her opening serve to take the initial lead. After the Russian held her serve in the second fame, Williams unleashed barrage of powerful groundstrokes and went on a five-game killing
spree. She blocked the lone breakpoint she came across and capitalised on half of the four break chances to pocket the breadstick.
Next in queue for the jubilant American is the former world number one, Caroline Wozniacki, who eased past Germany’s Mona Barthel in straight sets to set-up this clash. The Dane was broken down three times but broke Barthel’s serve four times to formulate
a 6-4, 7-6(2) score line in one hour and 34 minutes.
The American is leading 3-1 in the head-to-head series against Wozniacki. However, the Dane was triumphant in their last encounter in the Sony Ericsson Open this circuit.
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