Shahar Peer sails into the second round of 2011 Internazionali BNL d’Italia
Tenth seed Shahar Peer defeated Serbian tennis-pro Bojana Jovanovski in an exciting three setter 3-6, 6-0, 6-4 on Tuesday to reach the second round of 2011 Internazionali BNL D’Italia. The Israeli will face Russian Alisa Kleybanova
in second round play of the clay court tournament. Kleybanova made quick work of American Varvara Lepchenko 6-2, 6-2 in her opening match.
Peer made a very shaky start to the contest as she suffered an early serve break in the opening set. Jovanovski grabbed the chances with both hands and made her opponent pay heavily for her mistakes. The Serbian secured her service
games with ease and broke serve twice to take the opener 6-3.
Peer regrouped herself and showed better temperament in the second set. She looked out of sorts in the opener but as the match progressed she started to time the ball beautifully and made great moves on the court. Her first chance
to break the serve came in second game of the set which she converted successfully to take 2-0 lead in the set. The Israeli tennis star did not drop a game in the set to level the set score at 1-1.
Both contestants put up a great fight in the final set. Jovanovski broke the serve first after clinching four straight points on her opponents serve. Leading the score at 4-2, she looked on course to a great victory but Peer broke
back with a double serve break to deny her a deserving win. The ability to perform under pressure paid off big time for Peer as she smashed her forehand and backhand punches to perfection and made the challenger run for her money.
Peer played in a lovely drop shot to set up three break points for her and then converted the second one to ensure her place in the next round of Women’s Tennis Association tournament. With accurate and powerful serve, Peer achieved
an impressive 70 per cent first serve conversion while she claimed 55 per cent of the points on return to strengthen her position in the contest. Jovanovski committed too many unforced errors in the second set and allowed her opponent to dictate terms. She
was disappointed with her effort as she let the opportunity slip away.
Ranked 14th in the world, Shahar Peer is having a very average time on the tour since the year 2011 has started. Although she has made quarterfinal appearances at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships and BNP Paribas
Open, her overall performance was below the high standards she sets for herself. She will be looking to improve her WTA ranking by reaching the finals stages of the event in Rome.
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