Shuai Peng ousts Shahar Peer in 3rd round – Western & Southern Open 2011
World number 15, Chinese Shuai Peng won in a run of the mill victory against Israeli Shahar Peer during the third round of the Western and Southern Open 2011. On the hard courts of the Lindner Family Tennis Center, Mason, Ohio, the two had clashed for a berth in the quarter final. Peng was triumphant over Peer with a 6-3, 6-2 victory in just 65 minutes of the game.
The two had met thrice, twice in 2006 and once in 2009. The last time they met was at the Guangzhou International Women’s Open 2009, where Peer had defeated Peng in straight sets. Prior to this event Peer was leading in their head-to-head with 2:1, however, Peng’s victory enabled her to equalize the head-to-head score.
Opening the set was Peng who had perfected her accuracy in her serve and struck zero double faults, along with achieving a ostentatious 93% win in her first serves gained an upper hand against Peer, who although, had hit 77% of her first serves on target, she lost points due to striking 3 double faults and a poor second serve.
Unable to completely utilize her forehand, Peer was struggling to find place her return shots sagaciously and to find her rhythm which won her only 4 out of 24 points, making it a pathetic 24% win in her total return points. Mean while, the Chinese had a powerful back hand and with well placed volleys she was able to nail 42% of her total return points.
Peng had a meticulous defence and did not set up a single break point situation for her opponent and instead broke the Israeli once. The Chinese was dominant over the world number 24 (Peer) and capitalized on 33% of her break points; while, Peer was only able to save 2 o ut of the 3 break points on her serve.
Hence, by not letting her opponent the opportunity to break her serve even once during the set and by accomplishing 62% of her total set points, which were almost twice as many, she captured the set.
The first set was an amazing display of well placed shots from Peng as she got rid of Peer in just 35 minutes of play. The second set saw Peng slip only for a moment as she struck two double faults but there wasn’t much difference in Peer’s performance as she was only able to achieve 43% of her first serve on targets and only saved 1 out of the 3 break points on her serve.
Peer was unable to reply back and hence, had an extremely poor return that won her only 6 out of 24 points, making it a pitiable 25% of her total return points. The 25-year-old (Peng) was a barrage of unstoppable shots aimed at her opponent, which assisted her in achieving a good 52% of her total returns.
The right handed player (Peng) won the second set by accomplishing almost twice as many as points as her adversary’s and seized to take a 63% win in her total set points.
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