Vera Zvonareva achieves a piece-of-cake victory over Mariya Koryttseva in the semis – Baku Cup 2011
On Saturday, 23rd of July, Vera Zvonareva effortlessly won the semi final from Mariya Koryttseva at the Baku Tennis Academy, Baku, Azerbaijan, in less than sixty seven minutes 6-1, 6-2.
The Russian (Vera) and the Ukrainian (Mariya) were not meeting for the first time, they had previously met at the Istanbul Championships, where both the players had duelled it out on the hard courts in 2009. Maria won the match
6-2,1-6,6-4. Fate made their paths cross again; the two were meeting for the second time at the Baku Cup 2011.
Mariya had forgotten that Vera had changed her style and technique and performed very poorly in serve and return serve. Although she was able to convert the only break point she received she was unable t o save four break points
out of the five she had committed. Vera wanted to take revenge and hence, served with confidence; although she had an above average serve and return serves, her accuracy faltered three times hitting the net. However, her defence made up for the loss as she
had committed only one break point and capitalised on four break point opportunities given to her by her opponent. It was as if Vera was on fire and did not let her opponent win any more game points. Vera won the set with almost three times more total set
points than that of Mariya’s.
Winning the first set of the match boosted Vera’s performance and she was not to give up now; although she did not ace, she was able to cut down on her double faults and reduced them to two whereas, her opponent’s precession faltered
and she (Mariya) struck five double faults out of which four were line faults and the remainder hit the net.
On the contrary, Mariya performed better in her serve but dropped below the par on her return serve. She (Mariya) managed to convert the only break point advantage; she lost most of her points as she was also unable to save four
of the seven break point chances and thus, lost the match to Vera who played flawlessly.
When all was said and done, Vera was able to avenge her loss and managed to equalize their head to head score to 1-1. Vera won the match in straight two sets because she was able to capitalize on her opponent’s break points.
The 26-year-old Vera Zvonareva will now face the 20-year-old Ksenia Pervak in the final match of the Baku Cup 2011.
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