Shuai Peng and Alexandra Dulgheru advance to the fourth round of the Sony Ericsson Open
Another upset for the tennis fans as the world number 32 Shuai Peng of China defeated the 14th ranked Russian, Svetlana Kuznetsova in the third round of the Sony Ericsson Open at Miami, Florida on Saturday night. The
unseeded Chinese surprised Kuznetsova by bagging a straight sets victory 6-3, 6-1, in just one hour and sixteen minutes to move on to the fourth round of the tournament.
Peng had already defeated the Russian in the running WTA (Women’s Tennis Association) season at Auckland in the round of 16. She improves her head-to-head record against Kuznetsova to 2-3 after her 23rd win of the year
at Miami. Peng remained dominant throughout the contest, giving very few opportunities to her opponent and bagging points on the critical moments of the game.
An impressive 71 per cent first serve from Peng in the opener gave her the competitive advantage she needed. The fact that she didn’t drop her serve in the whole match also adds to that advantage. A single break point from her
racquet put Peng in the position to close the first set at 6-3 and get one up in the contest.
Kuznetsova appeared in no sort of form in the next set and just held her serve in one game. Peng stung three break points and rocketed away to an impassable lead of 5-1 in the second set. The Chinese eventually concluded the contest
at 6-1 to get a pass to the fourth round at Miami.
She will next be facing world number 28, Alexandra Dulgheru of Romania in the round of 16 on Monday evening. Dulgheru won her third round encounter against Johanna Larsson of Sweden in straight sets, 6-2, 6-1, taking just one hour
and eight minutes of play.
The Romanian demolished her rival with her powerful serve game and elegant down the line winners. Dulgheru delivered 74 per cent first serve on target, conceding just two double faults and winning 57 out of 96 total points in the
game. Larsson hit a serve break in each set but her high error count wore her out in the game.
After an exchange of early serve breaks in the opening set, Dulgheru kept exerting pressure upon the Swede to commit errors. The Romanian cracked three serve breaks to take the first set at 6-2 and kept her winning momentum in
the following set as well. Three more break points from Dulgheru in the second set left the Swede in no position to bounce back in the game. The Romanian collected 29 out of 46 total points in the game to seal an assertive victory for her at 6-1, advancing
to meet Shuai Peng in the fourth round of the Sony Ericsson Open.
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