Vera Dushevina defeats Jelena Dokic to move into the next round at the 2011 Roland Garros
Russian tennis-pro Vera Dushevina secured a second round berth at the prestigious French Open with a hard fought victory over former world number four Jelena Dokic 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 on Sunday. Dushevina had to fight hard in the second
set to stay in the match but in the decider she looked in complete control top advance at the Majors tournament.
Dokic pulled out of Australia’s Fed Cup loss to the Ukrainian side last month and stated that the reason for her late withdrawal was because she wanted to give her every chance of competing at the Roland Garros.
"I was really exhausted. I withdrew only a few days before because I thought I would be still okay. Unfortunately, it was a late withdrawal only because I wanted to go and give myself the best chance. I did not play for four weeks
after that.”, she said following her first-round exit at the French Open yesterday.
Dokic seemed to have caught a bizarre injury during the warm-up against Russian, hurting the palm of her right hand. However, despite feeling the pain and shake of head, she took the opener 6-4.
"It is very strange but it did not affect me too much and it is not the reason I lost the match,'' said Dokic in a post match interview.
Ranked 59th in the Women’s Tennis Association rankings, Dokic made a bright start to the contest. She broke the challenger twice in the opening set to cement her position in the match. Although Dushevina broke back in
one of the games, she failed to stop Dokic from earning a well deserved set score lead 1-0.
However, as the match progressed Dokic’s shine faded away. In the second set she committed a whopping 15 unforced errors as compared to only six made by her opponent. Dushevina held her nerves and broke the serve twice in the set
to shift the balance of the match.
The Russian continued to pressurise Dokic with some high quality tennis in the final set as well. With her blazing forehand and backhand shots, she created match winning opportunities and converted two out of three break chances
in the set to ensure her place in the next round at the tournament. Dushevina was extremely delighted her victory and aimed to achieve positive results in her next match-up as well.
With an impressive 73 percent first serve conversion, Dushevina pushed her opponent right back to the baseline and then created difficult angles for her opponent. She converted five out of nine break chances in the match as compared
to only three out ten managed by Dokic. A high percentage of break points conversion proved to a vital factor in her victory at the end.
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