Shahar Peer struggles past Sandra Zahlavova in the qualifiers – Porsche Tennis Grand Prix 2013
Israeli tennis ace, Shahar Peer, had to dig deep before winning the three-set battle in the second qualifying round of Porsche Tennis Grand Prix on Sunday. The seventh seed outplayed the Czech veteran, Sandra Zahlavova, after recovering
from one-set deficit, settling the final score line at 6-7(7), 6-4, 6-4. The contest lasted for two hours and 43 minutes before Peer got an entry to the qualifying competition of the WTA event in Stuttgart, Germany.
It was a fierce battle, with the two experienced campaigners delivering their best to get the better of one another. The opening set took off with three successive break points from both ends but Peer broke into 4-1 lead with serve
breaks in her bag. Zahlavova finally broke the Israeli number one in the ninth game and levelled the scores at 5-5. Another exchange of serve breaks dragged the scores to 6-6 and a tie-break round came into play. The decider also went to the wire, with both
players fighting their heart out to claim the set. A vital mini-break from Zahlavova at 8-7 finally wrapped up the first set at 7-6(7) in her favour.
Peer had a similar sort of beginning in the following set and nailed two early serve breaks to rocket away to 4-0 in no time. Zahlavova retaliated with a break point conversion in the sixth game to reduce the deficit to 2-4. However,
she couldn’t restrict Peer from serving out of the set at 5-4.
With the contest levelled at 1-1, the decisive set was bound to be a thriller and it actually proved to be one. Peer carried on with her trend and stung two early serve breaks to race away to 4-0. Zahlavova broke the Israeli serve
in the sixth game, only to be broken in the very next game. She cracked another break point in the eighth game but couldn’t recover from the trail. Peer comprehensively served out of the match at 5-4 and got a step closer to the main draw of the tournament.
Peer has to take down the fourth seed, Mirjana Lucic-Baroni, in her next encounter to reach the main draw.
Tags: