Spanish duo stun Peschke/Srebotnik to reach semis – Mutua Madrid Open 2012
Local tandem, Nuria Llagostera Vives and Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez, upset second seeds, Kveta Peschke and Katarina Srebotnik, in straight sets at the Mutua Madrid Madrilena Open 2012 on Thursday. They nudged up a 6-4, 6-4 success against their higher ranked rivals to cruise into the final four at this Premier Mandatory event taking place in Madrid, Spain.
The Spaniards showed exceptional co-ordination at their home tournament and eventually pulled out the victory in one hour and 26 minutes. As a result, they convincingly booked a spot in the last four at this WTA (Women’s Tennis Association) clay court event.
Llagostera Vives and Martinez Sanchez thundered into Park Manzanares. They drew the first blood in the opening game and then swiped in entire serves to seal the opener by winning six games to four. The Spaniards dusted away all three breakpoints they faced and capitalised on one out of four break chances to inch towards glory.
Crowd favourite, Llagostera Vives and Martinez Sanchez lost their track towards the follow-up set and suffered the first blow in the fourth game to go 1-3 down. However, they sought their rhythm after that and snatched their break in the very next game. The Spaniards held remaining serves and got the breakthrough in the ninth game, eventually bagging the set with a 6-4 win.
Summing up the underdogs performance, Llagostera Vives and Martinez Sanchez outclassed the seeds completely. They clobbered an equal first serve share of 62 per cent and excellently marked 26 out of 33 points on it.
The winning combination of Llagostera Vives and Martinez Sanchez will square off against the Russian junction, Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina. The Russians bounced back to shock the Argentinean veterans, Gisela Dulko and Paola Suarez in 94 minutes. They were broken down once but cashed in all three break chances to jolt down a 6-7(5), 6-2, 10-5 success.
The fifth seeded Italians, Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci, will accompany the Spaniards in the following round. They dusted away seven out of eight breakpoints they encountered and capitalised on three out of nine break opportunities to overpower Dominika Cibulkova and Janette Husarova.
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