Vera Zvonareva and Maria Sanchez successful in the second round of 2011 Sony Ericsson Open
World number 3 Vera Zvonareva came back from a set deficit to defeat Dinara Safina of Russia 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 on Friday securing a spot for herself in the third round of the 2011 Sony Ericsson Open in Miami.
The Russian struggled to find her form in the first set and gifted a number of points in the opening set. Her opponent, Safina held on to her serve and made the crucial serve break to lead the set score 1-0.
Zvonareva started to time the tennis ball a lot better in the second set and created a lot of problems for the challenger. She broke the serve in the seventh game and won all of her serve games to take the second set 6-3. With
her strong ground play Zvonareva pushed her opponent to the baseline from where she had very few answers. The 26 year old gave allowed no room to her opponent and smashed the forehands and backhands wide off the court to create difficult angles.
In the decider Zvonareva continued with the same momentum and made two serve breaks to establish complete control over the situation. She converted one of the match points to seal victory in a match that lasted for over 2 hours.
The higher ranked Russian’s first serve conversion was 64 percent and she converted 72 percent of the points on her first serve. The 26 year old Russian dominated in the serve return department as well achieving 50 percent point’s
conversion. On the other hand Safina, who is ranked 91 in the world, struggled with her serve quite dramatically producing 12 double faults in the match. Her unforced errors proved to be the main difference between the two players at the end.
Zvonareva was ranked world number 23 in the Women’s Tennis Association ranking in her last latest showing at the prestigious ATP Masters 1000 tournament in 2010. She defeated American Melanie Oudin and Italian Sara Errani in her
opening two matches however her run was ended in the third round by Justine Henin who defeated her in straight sets. Zvonareva has improved her game significantly since then and is considered to be a real favorite at this year’s edition of Sony Ericson Championships.
Meanwhile, Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez of Spain eased past Georgian Anna Tatishvili in straight sets 6-1, 6-4 to book her place in the third round of the tournament.
The Spaniard looked in an aggressive mood right from the start. She took the first set with ease breaking her opponents serve twice. Tatishvili put up a better show in the second set breaking the serve twice. However Sanchez stayed
steady and broke back instantly to finish the match in two sets.
Sanchez will take on world number 2 Kim Clijsters in her third round match-up. However she will have to be at her very best if she wants to pose any threats to the 2011 Australian Open champion.
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