Shahar Peer beats Pavlyuchenkova at 2011 BNP Paribas Open
Shahar Peer survives a three set thriller 2-6, 6-3, 7-5 against the Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the third round of 2011 BNP Paribas Open at the Indian Wells Tennis Gardens.
Peer started off in an uncertain fashion committing quite a few unforced errors. The set ended in desperation for her as she managed to win only two games, losing 2-6. However, the Israeli bounced back in the second set as she
made two important serve breaks with amazing cross court winners and leveled the set score 1-1.
The final set was played on a highly competitive note as both players exchanged breaks and tried to pressurize one another. The Israeli shifted her gears to race past Pavlyuchenkova 7-5 in the decider as she completed a deserving
win after 2 hours and 17 minutes of play. The Israeli number one, Shahar Peer used her backhands and forehands to great effect as she converted 8 out of 15 break points in the match whereas Pavlyuchenkova managed only 5 out 12 in her turn.
Shahar Peer reached her career high ranking of world number 11 earlier this year after her impressive performances at the tour in 2010. However since then she has been struggling to keep the momentum going in her favour. She fell
out in the third round of Australian Open and was then knocked out in the early stages of Dubai Duty Free and Doha Ladies Open. But the 23 year old lifted her spirits in second round at 2011 Indian Wells when she came back from a set deficit to win the match.
Peer will now be hoping to retain her form in the next rounds when she takes on other top seeded players in the US $ 3,465,000 tournament.
On the other hand Russian Pavlyuchenkova certainly created opportunities for herself but when it came to converting them into points, she struggled most of the times. The 19 year old bagged only a mere 38 percent of the points
on her second serve which played a crucial role in deciding the outcome of the match. Just a week ago she put up a magnificent show at the Monterrey Open defeating Jelena Jankovic in the finals to lift the second WTA title of her career. Seeded 17th
in the competition, Pavlyuchenkova fought right till the end to keep her campaign alive at the prestigious ATP Masters 1000 event to go up the rankings even further but her run ended at the hands of Peer who was a better player today.
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