Shuai Peng vs Nadia Petrova – Match Preview: Tournament of Championships 2011
The two competitors to duel against each other for the season-ending Commonwealth Bank Tournament of Champions 2011 are Chinese Shuai Peng and seventh seeded Russian Nadia Petrova.
The two have competed five times against each other prior to this event and in their head-to-head series world number 16 Peng is leading the series with three wins over Petrova’s two.
The first time they met was in 2005 at Sydney during the quarterfinal and the two had battled it out on hard courts until finally Peng bagged the match in straight sets. However, after almost four years the two once more battled
swords on hard courts of Beijing and this time Petrova avenged her loss in three sets.
They had met once in 2010 at the Indian Wells tournament and Petrova had scored once more scored against Peng. After a year, the two once more met at Indian Wells and this time Peng got the best of Petrova.
The last time they convened was in 2011 and both duelled swords on clay courts of Charleston and rising to the occasion was Peng as she survived a mid match crisis to defeat Petrova. In addition, out of the four hard court events
that the two have played, each player has bagged two games each.
Current world number 16 Peng has amazed the tennis world as she managed to accomplish an absolute breakthrough season. She started the year at world number 72 and managed to reach a career high ranking of world number 14 in August,
achieving the second-highest ranking ever for a Chinese player, after Li Na. The Chinese saw herself as a semi finalist and quarterfinalist for many events but unfortunately was not able to bag any title.
Peng qualified for this event for the first time in 2008 and out of the two matches that she played, she won the first against Japanese Ayumi Morita but in the second she lost to Yung-Jan Chan.
Moreover, the Chinese has played many top players this year and has an idea of their playing technique. Her most notable win was when she destroyed Vera Zvonareva in straight sets on clay courts at Brussels.
On the other hand, Petrova has had a seesaw year and even though, a lot more was expected from the Russian, she was unable to rise to the challenges. Nevertheless, she managed to bag a title at the College Park Tournament held
in Washington DC.
Petrova made her first appearance at this tournament in 2004 and she skilfully managed to reach the semifinals but lost to Svetlana Kuznetsova. She again qualified for this event in 2008 and she defeated Francesca Schiavone in
the quarterfinal to eventually lose to Patty Schnyder in the semi final.
Most tennis experts and gurus expect the match to go either way. However, Peng was just barely able to survive in the last two matches against Petrova. If the former world number 3, Petra brings on her A-game, she might just defeat
Peng.
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