Vera Zvonareva defeats Agnieszka Radwanska to qualify for the semi-final of Sony Ericsson Open
World number three Vera Zvonareva of Russia continued to exhibit her brilliant form this year by defeating the 14th ranked Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland in the quarter-final of the Sony Ericsson Open at Miami, Florida, on Wednesday, the 30th
of March. The Russian worked hard to conclude her straight sets victory 7-5, 6-3, taking one hour and thirty five minutes of play.
The third seed registered her 15th victory of the current WTA (Women’s Tennis Association) season at Miami, winning fourth straight quarter-final of the year. Zvonareva remained unbeaten against the Pole and extended her head-to-head lead to 2-0
after ejecting Radwanska from the competition.
“I’m definitely more experienced and I'm more mature,” said the Russian after winning her match, “I’m just trying to enjoy my time on the court. I don't really think about anything else when I’m out there.”
The ninth seed, Radwanska gave a tough time to the Russian in the game and put up a great fight in the opening set. She got the set point when she was about to break Zvonareva’s serve at 5-4, but a fiery ace from the Russian denied her. Zvonareva then took
the reins of the game and orchestrated most of the rallies in the contest to bag a win.
The 26-year-old Russian coughed three double faults in the opener and delivered just 51 per cent of her first serve on target but very skillfully compensated for it by wining 14 out of 20 first serve points. She dropped her serve once in the first set and
committed some unforced errors to allow her opponent to reach set point at 4-5. A timely ace from Zvonareva saved the opening set for her and she stung a serve break in the very next game to nullify her opponent’s advantage. The Russian went further to bag
the opener at 7-5 and lead the contest by 1-0.
Radwanska served brilliantly in the next set as well, reaching about 80 per cent accuracy but she failed to collect crucial points in the game. A total of 52 points were played in the second set with Radwanska winning just 22 and the remaining 30 taken by
the Russian. The ninth seed broke the opponent’s serve once but had to suffer three break points from Zvonareva to remain on the back foot.
The aggressive Russian kept winning points and extended her lead to seal victory at 6-3, moving on to the semi-final of the WTA event. Zvonareva will square off against the eighth seed Belarusian, Victoria Azarenka in the next round clash to strive for a
berth in the final. Azarenka made a huge upset in the quarter-final by defeating the World number 2, Kim Clijsters of Belgium in straight sets 6-3, 6-3, to reach the round of four at Miami.
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