Vera Zvonareva beats Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the second round of the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix
World number three, Vera Zvonareva of Russia had to toil a bit longer before overcoming her fellow compatriot, the 21st ranked Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the second round of the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix, played at
the Porsche Tennis Arena at Stuttgart, Germany on Wednesday. The second seed Russian took two hours and nine minutes to outplay her opponent at 3-6, 6-4, 6-2, to book a quarter-final berth in the $721,000 WTA (Women’s Tennis Association) tournament.
26-year-old Zvonareva exhibited her true class in the contest, recovering from a slump in the opening set and bagging the next two sets to register her 21st WTA victory of the running year. She was competing against
Pavlyuchenkova for the first time and took her time to read the moves of her opponent early, which cost her first set. The second seed then made a tremendous comeback in the very next set with great mastery and swept away her opponent out of the tournament.
Rated at 21 in world rankings, Pavlyuchenkova had an impactful start to the matchup and outshined the second seeded Russian with ease. The contest was still under her control till 4-4 in the second set, when Zvonareva shifted her
gears and reeled off the next five games consecutively to turn the tables on Pavlyuchenkova. The 19-year-old Russian failed to hold the pressure of the game and eventually succumbed to her opponent in the third set to allow her pass into the round of eight.
The opener kicked off with aggressive moves from the two players, trying to get the early advantage. Zvonareva’s first serve accuracy was pretty ordinary but she clinched 11 of 12 points on it. A single serve break from Pavlyuchenkova
proved sufficient for her as she closed out the first set at 6-3 to get the upper hand in the matchup.
The local crowd at Stuttgart anticipated a huge upset after Pavlyuchenkova nabbed the opener convincingly but Zvonareva proved the speculations wrong by her amazing comeback in the next set. The second set was evenly poised at
4-4 when the second seed turned the tide, breaking for the first time in the contest and sealed the set at 6-4 to enforce the third.
Zvonareva had no real difficulty dispensing out her opponent in the decisive set. She broke Pavlyuchenkova’s serve twice before concluding victory at 6-2 and getting access to the quarter-final draws of the Porsche Tennis Grand
Prix. Zvonareva will be facing the world number seven, Samantha Stosur of Australia in the next encounter. Stosur stood victorious against Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia in the second round matchup at Stuttgart.
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