Shahar Peer ousts Francesca Schiavone at 2011 BNP Paribas Open
Israeli number one, Shahar Peer defeated world number five Francesca Schiavone of Italy in three tight sets 6-4, 3-6, 7-6(3) on Tuesday to make it to the quarterfinals at the 2011 BNP Paribas Open in California.
The match was played on a highly competitive note as both contestants displayed high quality tennis throughout. Peer held on to her serve and made the important serve break in the first set to lead the set score 1-0. The Italian
however showed great fighting spirit, mental strength and determination to bounce back in the following set. She broke the serve when Peer looked to be in complete control of the situation to find a way back into the contest.
Schiavone did well to take the final set into a tie-breaker. However, Peer stood her ground and completed an important win over a player ranked higher than herself in a match that lasted for more than 2 hours and 46 minutes. The
Israeli pro had a rock solid defense and sensational attacking ability. On the other hand the Italian was quite ordinary in the serve department as she produced a whopping 10 double faults in the match which proved to be the main difference in the end.
Earlier Peer came back from a set deficit to stun the world’s highest ranked teenager Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the third round play. Many analysts had predicted her as the second favorite against the inform Russian however Peer
dug deep and saved three match points in the decider and completed an astonishing win to lift her spirits.
Peer now has a 4-1 head-to-head lead over the Italian and looks in great touch ahead of her quarterfinal clash with world number 25 Yanina Wickmayer. Winner of 5 Women’s Tennis Association titles, Peer has given considerable performances
since the start of this season to reach her career high ranking world number 11 and will be hoping to win her first title of the year. Having said that, she needs to improve certain aspects of her game if she wants to overcome the likes of Caroline Wozniacki,
Maria Sharapova and Victoria Azarenka
The Italian has enjoyed best years of her career since her previous meeting with Peer in 2009. She thrilled her fans and supporters at the 2011 Australian Open where she reached the quarterfinals. But being 31 years old it was
always difficult for her to maintain that kind of consistency and thus she fell out early in Dubai Duty Free, Qatar Ladies Open and Malaysian Open. Schiavone looked in decent touch at Indian Wells, thrashing Alize Cornet in straight sets in the third round
until she was outrun by her Israeli opponent.
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