Svetlana Kuznetsova thrashes Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez in round one – Qatar Total Open 2012
Former world number two, Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia, faced limited resistance in the opening round of the Qatar Total Open before beating the unseeded Spaniard, Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez, in straight sets, 7-5, 6-3. The 14th
seed Russian battled out for one hour and 25 minutes to take the better of her bleak opponent and advanced to the second round of the WTA (Women’s Tennis Association) Premier tournament.
The contest was played on hard courts of Qatar, Doha, on Monday afternoon, with Kuznetsova registering her ninth victory of the 2012 WTA season. Currently ranked at number 18 in the world, the Russian displayed another exhibition
of her vintage class against Sanchez and raced through the both sets to claim a convincing victory.
It was the second time that these two veterans squared off against each other on a tennis court and Kuznetsova kept her clean sheet against the Spanish. She defeated Sanchez way back in 2002, 6-3, 6-7(5), 6-4, in a clay court tournament
in Poland and doubled her head-to-head lead against her after her Monday’s victory. The 14th seed had to sweat little this time round and countered the early resistance from Sanchez with great command to ease her way in the following set.
Kuznetsova stamped her authority early in the opening set by breaking her opponent in the second game to lead 2-0. Sanchez retaliated immediately in the very next game, breaking the Russian serve and holding her game to level the
scores at 2-2. A regular game took the scores to 6-5, with Kuznetsova leading and it appeared as if a tie-breaker round will come into play. The Russian seed suddenly shifted her gears in the 12th game and after frittering away a break point, he
converted her second chance to close out the set at 7-5.
The 14th seed carried on her winning impetus in the following set and just one break point conversion in the fourth game proved sufficient for her to conclude a convincing victory at 6-3.
Kuznetsova has to wait for the opening round clash between Jie Zheng of China and the Russian beauty queen, Maria Kirilenko, to settle before she finds out her next round opponent in the Qatar Total Open. Zheng and Kirilenko will
go one-on-one against each other on Tuesday afternoon and the winner of the match will get a date with Kuznetsova in the round of 16 of the tournament later this week.
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