Shahar Peer and Jelena Jankovic win opening matches at Qatar Ladies Open
8th seeded Israeli Shahar Peer defeated the former world number 2, Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova in straight sets at the Qatar Ladies Open on Tuesday.
Peer was on fire, right from the beginning of the opening set. She held her service game easily and broke the Russian’s serve in the next game. Overall she displayed her amazing skills throughout the set and won it with four breaks.
Kuznetsova tried to stop the raging Israeli by winning two games with break points but it wasn’t enough as Peer won by 6-2 score line. Her first serve percentage of 57 percent was lower than the Russian’s 78 percent. However she registered an impressive 59
percent win on it.
The Russian re-formed herself in the second and the final set and played better. She managed to win four games including one with a break of serve. But Peer kept her same form and clinched the match by breaking Kuznetsova’s serve
in the tenth game. She had an acceptable first serve percentage of 65 percent as compared to the Russian’s 67 percent. In addition to this, she earned an amazing 75 percent win on it. She also registered a higher return point winning percentage of 44 percent
Peer through her stunning performance, levelled the head to head score to 4-4. And she will be facing French Marion Bartoli in the second round.
Top player from Israel, Peer, just managed to reach second rounds at Brisbane and Sydney before a third defeat at the Australian Open. She is ranked at number 11 among the WTA rankings. In this tournament she seems to be in good
form as she dumped the in-form Russian by score line of 6-2, 6-4.
In another match, 5th seeded Serbian Jelena Jankovic will be joining the Israeli in the round of 16. She overpowered Omani wildcard entrant Fatma Al Nabhani with a bread stick.
Ranked 387th in the world, Al Nabhani lacked concentration and was only able to win one game by holding her serve. Whereas the in-form Jankovic destroyed her completely by winning six games including two with break points
and won the set by 6-1. Jankovic outshined her completely. She had a higher first serve percentage of 75 percent in contrast with Al Nabhani’s 56 percent. In addition to this, produced an astonishing 87 percent win on it.
The lower ranked Omani was able to penetrate Jankovic’s defences in the second set as she broke her serve once and held her serve twice. But the Serbian didn’t lose her momentum and won the set with three breaks. She excelled in
every department in this set as well. She registered a higher first serve percentage of 78 percent as compared to Omani’s 63 percent. Along with this, she earned an amazing 67 percent win on it.
The Serb will be facing Indian Sania Mirza in the next round. Mirza reached this spot after beating Jankovic’s compatriot Bojana Jovanovski in the first round.
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