Svetlana Kuznetsova blasts past Irina Begu to advance into the third round – French Open 2011
Thirteenth seed, Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia slew Irina Begu of Romania with double breadsticks to advance into the third round of the 2011 Roland Garros, second of the four Grand Slams held in Paris, France, on Wednesday.
The Russian barely threw a sweat during her battle against the Romanian, who was making her French Open debut. She brushed aside the 20-year-old Romanian in just forty-seven minutes to advance in this major clay court tournament.
After this victory, the 25-year-old Russian took her revenge from her loss to the Romanian at Marbella earlier this season and levelled their head-to-head series by 1-1.
A former world number two, Kuznetsova rolled balls perfectly onto the lines and maintained her consistency level throughout the match. She raged into the opening set and smoothly held her entire serves. The Russian faced zero breakpoint
and converted two out of three breakpoint opportunities to her advantage to bag a breadstick. She produced a higher first serve share of 60 percent as compared to Begu’s 55 percent and registered a spectacular 75 percent win on it.
The Russian lost one game in this final set but won all remaining six games to pocket a breadstick. She had a lower first serve share of 71 percent but earned an amazing 75 percent win on it. In addition to this, she again conceded
zero breakpoint and converted all three breakpoint opportunities to her advantage.
Ranked 14th in the Sony Ericsson WTA Premier rankings, re-ignited her spark at Dubai where she reached the final before losing to world number one Caroline Wozniacki. Her form dipped afterwards but rose again at Marbella
where she made a semi-final berth. However, she was ousted from the opening rounds at Madrid and Rome before entering this event.
Begu, ranked 88 places below her, barely survived the match. She has had a mediocre season so far after winning the title at Cali ITF and making a final berth at Marbella through qualifiers. En-route to final, she triumphed over
sixth seeded Czech Klara Zakopalova and second seed Kuznetsova. The Romanian entered this event in full confidence and dumped Aravane Rezai in straight sets at her home soil in her opening round match.
Up next for the Russian is the Canadian Rebecca Marino who bounced back from a set down to win against the Spaniard Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez in a three set thriller to reach this spot.
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