Tsvetana Pironkova stuns Venus Williams in the fourth round – Wimbledon Championships 2011
Twenty-third seeded American Venus Williams crashed out against thirty-second seeded Bulgarian Tsvetana Pironkova in the third round of the Wimbledon Championships 2011, a Grand Slam event held on grass courts of London, England.
She barely survived in the opening set to register a 2-6, 3-6 defeat on Monday.
A former world number one, Williams was ousted by the Bulgarian for the second time in row from this event and for the third time in their four meetings. The American is shocked to exit from this stage and after this loss at SW-19
again, she now trails their head-to-head series by 1-3.
31-year-old American committed sixteen unforced errors to Bulgarian’s nine and saved only three out of seven breakpoints faced to exit the Centre Court in one hour and fifteen minutes. Regardless of clobbering a higher first serve
share of 72 percent as compared to Pironkova’s 59 percent, she earned only fifty-nine percent win on it.
Williams founded zero breakpoint chance in the opening set and converted one out of four breakpoint opportunities in the final set. However, it wasn’t enough to hold back the raging Bulgarian.
"I didn't seem to get the ball in; she took her opportunities," Williams said in her post-match analysis. "I just didn't put the ball in the court. Simple as that. Unfortunately, I seem not to have my good days against her."
The higher ranked Americana was out for almost a year due to injuries. However, she made a short comeback at Australian Open before losing to thirtieth seeded German Andrea Petkovic in the third round. Williams again dwindled in
injuries and recovered at Eastbourne where she made a quarter-final berth before entering this Grand Slam. After her sister lost earlier that day, she was expected finalist in this event but the American stood no chance in front of Pironkova.
"I think my loss today is just my own doing," she said. "But I feel positive because I'm still playing great tennis and my game's just going better and better. With more time, I think I can definitely play better, more matches.
Obviously I would love to have peaked here. But, you know, I'm moving on."
Pironkova, on the other hand, has had a drastic season so far. To make it worse, she fell to a six match losing streak and exited from the opening round match against Serena Williams at Eastbourne. However, to everyone’s surprise,
she re-created her magic of her last year performance at Wimbledon and stunned second seeded Vera Zvonareva in straight sets to set-up this clash.
Talking about her run here, Pironkova said, "I just tried to stay focused, just think about the next point, that's it.”
23-year-old Bulgarian will next face Czech Petra Kvitova in the last eight show down.
Tags: