Tennis Special Edition: Vera Zvonareva and her career in 2010
Anyone who has been following this year’s top players will be familiar with the Russian professional tennis player, Vera Zvonareva. The 26-year-old from Moscow has been flying on a series of career highs, especially her recent ranking as World Number 4,
and despite some failures, both minor and major, she does not show signs of stepping down from the platform which tennis has provided her.
Zvonareva was introduced to tennis at the age of six by her mother, although no members of her family are themselves aficionados of the sport. She turned pro in 2000 at the age of 16, showing her talent by winning the Orange Bowl under 18s event in the millennium
year and in 2001.
Since she started playing professional tennis, Zvonareva has been one to watch. In ten years, she has won 10 WTA Tour singles titles. The young Russian also won a bronze medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. The young tennis player has reached the finals of
the WTA Tour Championships in 2008, as well as those of two majors, Wimbledon Championships in 2010 and the US Open, also in 2010.
2010 has been, by and large, a successful career year for Vera Zvonareva. She was seeded 9th at the Australian Open in January, and beat Kristina Kucova, Iveta Benesova and Gisela Dulko before being knocked out in the fourth-round by Victoria
Azarenka.
At the 2010 PTT Pattaya Open, Zvonareva seeded first and became the defending champion. She successfully defended her title with her back-to-back defeats of Ksenia Pervak, Alberta Brianti, Sybille Bammer, Yaroslava Shvedova and finally, Tamarine Tanasugarn.
Zvonareva lost to Azarenka in the quarter finals of the 2010 Dubai Tennis Championships. This was followed by two more losses; one at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells to Samantha Stosur, and the other at the 2010 Sony Ericsson Open to Justine Henin.
She suffered both these upsets in the third round. She also lost to Samantha Stosur in her second final of the year at the 2010 Family Circle Cup. Other losses this year include her defeat by Petra Kvitova at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia and Venus Williams
at the Mutua Madrilena Madrid Open.
After another two defeats in early rounds at the 2010 French Open and the 2010 AEGON International, Zvonareva made it to her first Grand Slam final at the Wimbledon Championships. She defeated Nuria Llagostera Vives, Andrea Hlavackova, Yanina Wickmayer,
Jelena Jankovic, Kim Clijsters and Tsvetana Pironkova to get to the final, where she was beaten in straight sets by Serena Williams, World Number 1.
Zvonareva was seeded 3rd at the 2010 Mercury Insurance Open in San Diego, where she lost to Coco Vandeweghe in the second round. She was seeded 6th at the 2010 Western & Southern Financial Group Women’s Open. At this tournament, Flavia
Pennetta defeated her in the third round. Caroline Wozniacki beat her at the third round of the Rogers Cup.
In her latest tournament, Zvonareva reached the second US Open of her career, and the second consecutive Grand Slam final at the US Open 2010. She was defeated by Kim Clijsters in the final, but before this last match she upset Zuzana Kucova, Sabine Lisicki,
Alexandra Dulgheru, Andrea Petkovic, Kaia Kanepi and top seed Caroline Wozniacki, chalking up her victories considerably.
It was after this tournament that Zvonareva became the World Number 2, her highest career ranking yet. Despite several upsets, Zvonareva seems to have recovered well, ending the season on a high note.
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