Vera Zvonareva bounces back to reach the quarterfinals of 2011 Sony Ericsson Open
World number three Vera Zvonareva came back from a set deficit against Frenchwoman Marion Bartoli on Monday to reach the quarterfinals at the 2011 Sony Ericsson Open in Miami. The Russian secured a 2-6, 6-3, 6-2 victory over Bartoli.
Zvonareva started off a bit tentatively. She struggled to execute her shots and committed a large number of unforced errors early on. Her opponent broke the serve twice in the set and then held on to her serve games to take the opening set 6-2.
In the following set, Zvonareva regrouped herself and showed remarkable fighting spirit, self belief and determination. She started to time the ball a lot better and pushed her opponent right back to the baseline with her strong forehands. Zvonareva created difficult angles for the challenger to cope with and won crucial points to level the score line 1-1.
The final set followed a similar trend as well. Zvonareva pressurized her opponent with her magnificent ground strokes and powerful serves. Although she lost one of her serve games in the set she broke back immediately to establish firm control over the situation. The Russian converted the very first match points to secure a comfortable victory.
Zvonareva’s serve created a lot of problems for her opponent as she fired 5 aces in the match. She also made the most of her opponent’s weak second serve converting nearly 60 per cent of the points on return. With this win the Russian has improved her head to head record against Bartoli to 9-2. Bartoli had defeated Zvonareva in their previous clash at 2009 Beijing Open.
The 26-year-old has achieved significant results on the tour since the start of this season. She reached the semifinals at the 2011 Australian Open where she was defeated by the eventual champion Kim Clijsters. Zvonareva then stunned world number one Caroline Wozniacki in the final of Qatar Ladies Open to lift 11th Women’s Tennis Association title of her career. She has certainly continued her promising form at the ATP Masters 1000 Sony Ericsson Open as well defeating Dinara Safina, Jarmila Groth in her opening two matches. Her quarterfinal clash will be against Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland who crushed world number four Francesca Schiavone 6-0, 6-2 in straight sets.
Bartoli on the other hand failed to handle the heat after making a bright start. She had her chances but was unable to convert them. The 26-year-old was the runner up at 2011 BNP Paribas Open just over a week ago and was hoping for similar results at this tournament as well but as it turned out she fell short of expectations.
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