Top 20 breakthroughs in professional tennis circuit this year: Part 11 – Tennis Special
5. Varvara Lepchenko (the United Stated of America)
My list of top-20 breakthroughs of the current season keeps being stuffed by American players. In this episode of the series, we shall look at Varvara Lepchenko, the American veteran who has finally found her winning groove this
year and has kept on climbing the WTA Premier Rankings with sheer pace. Her consistent performances might bring her up as the best upcoming US tennis prospects at the moment.
The 26-year-old took off the 2012 season as the 110th ranked contestant but her dedicated hard work and persistent fighting spirit has propelled her to her current career-best ranking of world number 21. Lepchenko’s
success this season has been phenomenal and is clearly depicted by her impressive improvement in the WTA Premier Rankings. With 11 ITF (International Tennis Federation) championship titles under her belt, the left-hander is yet to bag her maiden WTA trophy.
Her current form suggests that she is quite near to accomplish her dream and she might enter the winners’ circle in the next professional circuit.
Lepchenko took off the current season with failures to qualify for the main draws at Auckland and Sydney. She finally qualified for the main rounds of the Grand Slam Down Under but was ejected in the very first match of the mega
event. Her first breakthrough of the season came in Doha when she rallied past to the round of 16, losing to the Pole number one, Agnieszka Radwanska.
The American made a quarter-final appearance in Memphis but couldn’t capitalize on the opportunity and lost to Alberta Brianti. Her bad patch continues in the following tournaments but she managed to break into the Top-100 rankings.
Lepchenko’s first major breakthrough came at the clay courts of Madrid and she beat all the odds to reach the quarter-finals of the WTA Premier-level event. She outplayed the likes of the former French Open champion Francesca Schiavone, Israeli number one
Shahar Peer and Spain’s Anabel Medina Garrigues. Her dream run was eventually halted once again by Radwanska and she suffered a 4-6, 4-6, defeat in twin sets.
Lepchenko carried on her impetus in the clay-court swing of the season and stunned everyone by featuring the fourth round of Roland Garros French Open. She was successful against Ksenia Pervak, former world number one Jelena Jankovic
and Schiavone once again. She lost to the Czech number one, Petra Kvitova, 2-6, 1-6, in the pre-quarter-final rounds of the Grand Slam event but her rankings swelled to 51.
Her third round finish at Wimbledon broke her into the Top-50 women tennis professionals and she kept on improving her ratings in the following events as well. Lepchenko reached the quarter-finals at Carlsbad, second round at the
London Olympics and third round at the Montreal Masters, eventually clinching the world number 37th spot.
Her latest breakthroughs were witnessed at the US Open, where she finished in the third round, followed by a semi-final run in Seoul, where she lost to Kaia Kanepi. Lepchenko has been one of the most consistent players of the season
and her hard work will surely pay off next year.
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