Tennis Pan Pacific: Francesca Schiavone cruises into the quarters
The 2010 clay court French Open winner Francesca Schiavone ended the dream run of her 40-year-old tennis foe, Kimiko Date Krumm after claiming a third round win at the Pan Pacific Tennis tournament on Wednesday. The final match score was 6-3 6-3.
The fifth seed Italian had too much firepower for her Japanese opponent, Kimiko Date and thus comfortably made her way into the quarter final round of the $2 million Tokyo competition in the end.
Francesca, while commenting on Kimiko’s game after the match said that she fought quite well throughout the match and didn’t give up until the very end.
"Every point was close. Every game was close and there were a lot of deuces. It was only when I broke for 4-3 in the second that I knew I could win,” Schiavone told the reporters after the match on Wednesday.
On the other hand, Date Krumm winner in 1995 put the blame of her flat performance to fatigue after hammering down Daniela Hantuchova and last year’s champ, Maria Sharapova of Russia.
She, while commenting on her opponent’s game, said that Schiavone made good use of spin and played some superb tennis today.
"I felt a little tired this morning. She used a lot of spin and was making me run very wide. I tried to keep my feet moving but she just wore me down. Mentally she is so tough. She played almost perfect today,” said the former fourth ranked tennis ace, who
also celebrated her birthday on Tuesday after getting the better of Hantuchova in straight sets.
Date Krumm retired from the professional game of tennis back in 1996 before coming out of her retirement two years ago. This season, she registered her name as the oldest female tennis player who managed to knock down a top ten player, Dinara Safina at the
French Open tennis competition.
In other clashes, top seed Caroline Wozniacki brushed aside her Russian tennis foe, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in a total of two sets. The final match score was 6-1 6-3.
Second seed Vera Zvonareva, on the other hand, also managed to beat Roberta Vinci of Italy to claim a 6-4 6-0 win on Wednesday. She will next meet Elena Dementieva, who made her way into the quarters after thrashing Flavia Pennetta 6-4 6-2.
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