Tsvetana Pironkova moves past Petra Martic into second round – Kremlin Cup 2011
Bulgarian Tsvetana Pironkova got the best of Croatian Petra Martic in the main draw of the Kremlin Cup 2011. Both the challengers took to indoor hard courts of the Olympic Stadium in Moscow, Russia. After twenty nine minutes Martic
retired due to an injury and handed over the match to the world number 47 Pironkova.
The two had met once prior to this event on grass courts of Wimbledon Championships this year. Pironkova had won the match in straight sets of 6-1, 6-4 and led the head-to-head with a 1-0 score.
Initiating the first round of the match was Pironkova, who had just won the service toss and she got off to an amazing start as she not only held her serve to open the scoreboard at 1-love but she also capitalized on a breakpoint
to take a mini lead of 2-love on the scoreboard. Mean while, Martic was unable to hold her first serve and was not performing to her utmost.
During the third game Pironkova smashed a marvellous backhand winner to secure her service game and further increased her lead to 3-love on the scoreboard. As Martic double faulted on her second serve, she endorsed yet another
game to her adversary, who had now bagged straight four games and was placed on the scoreboard at 4-0. By the end of the fifth game the score had shifted to 5-love with Pironkova leading in the set.
Martic was unable to hold her serves and was either double faulting or erred due to which she lost most of her points. Nevertheless, the Croatian made a return in the sixth game by holding her serve for the first time but it was
too late as she was unable to win any more games in the set.
On the contrary, Bulgarian Pironkova was now only a game away from bagging the first set, but as she was about to serve Croatian Martic called for a medical examiner as her foot was in a lot of pain. However, the match was continued
and as Pironkova served for the opening set, she smashed a beautiful winner down the line to seal a bread stick victory of the opening round.
However, after a minute delay Martic had decided to not carry on further because of a foot blister and withdrew gifting the match to Pironkova.
The Bulgarian managed to not only reserve a spot in the second round of the Kremlin Cup where she will be facing sixth seeded Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova but also increased the head-to-head lead to 2-0.
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