US Open 2011 Women's Champion? – Part 3: Vera Zvonareva
Vera Zvonareva was born on the 7th of September, 1984; she was introduced to tennis at the age of 6 by her mother Natalia, who was an Olympic bronze medallist in hockey. After years of sharpening her skills, she finally
entered the professional circuit in September 2000 and entered her first WTA main draw at Moscow as a wild entrant. Although, she lost in the second round of her first WTA event, she did manage to win one title on the ITF circuit that year. Russian Zvonareva
entered the limelight when she won her first career Grand Slam title, winning the mixed doubles competition at the US Open with Bob Bryan in 2004.
26-year old Zvonareva has an offensive strategy, which is mostly inclusive of a baseline play, hitting very flat ground strokes with extreme force and minimum topspin but she is also a confident player at the net. Her defensive
strategy is based on well placed drop shots, making it harder for her opponent’s to respond to her returns. Zvonareva can outrun many stronger opponents because of her excellent lateral movement, along with her instinct agility, and speed. She can adapt to
the changing conditions of the court and weather and likes all kinds of surfaces.
Hard court season proved her mettle as she made it to the semi-finals, quarter finals, and finals of most of those hard events. She was a runner up at Carlsbad because she lost the final to Agnieszka Radwanska, who is her kryptonite.
Vera was a semi-finalist at the Australian Open where she lost to Kim Clijsters. Pattaya City and Miami again saw her as a semi finalist. This year’s two time WTA hard court titlist (Zvonareva) achieved the 11thWTA title at the Qatar Ladies Open
in Doha. She also won her 12th title on the hard courts of the Baku Cup 2011, where she routed Ksenia Pervak in straight sets. The Russian has a win-loss record of 28-8 during the hard court season.
Excluding 2005, Zvonareva has contested in the U.S. Open from 2002 till 2010. She has a career win loss record at the US Open of 21-8. In 2008, the 26-year-old saw an early round exit but in 2009, she managed to qualify till the
fourth round only to be defeated at the hands of Flavia Pennetta. However, with a steady progress every year, she finally made it to the finals by overpowering the world number one Caroline Wozniacki only to be murdered by the defending champion Kim Clijsters
in 2010. With Kim out of the way Zvonareva has only two players that really match up to her; Maria Sharapova and Serena Williams. If the 26 year-old can avoid the early round meltdowns and not get into her own way, she might just win the US Open.
Zvonareva accomplished her highest ranking of world number 2 on the 25th of October 2010 but then later dropped to world number 3; eventually she took her previous position as of August 2011. After playing 56 matches,
her year to date win-loss record is 42-14, thus, 2011 has been a great year for Zvonareva and despite her age the Russian proved that she still has a lot more to bring to the table.
The Russian has won twelve WTA singles tournaments, and is not only a strong singles player but also a doubles and mixed doubles player. In May 2009 she was named ‘Promoter of Gender Equality’ under the partnership following Venus
Williams, Tatiana Golovin and Zheng Jie.
A powerful Russian and currently the highest ranked, Zvonareva may very well lift the title here should she play her cards right.
Disclaimer: The ideas expressed in the article are the writer’s own personal views and have nothing to do with bettor.com’s editorial policy.
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