Vera Zvonareva disintegrates Maria Kirilenko in quarterfinal – Toray Pan Pacific Open 2011
Russian surprise Maria Kirilenko’s winning streak was finally brought to an end at the hands of the fourth seeded Russian Vera Zvonareva in the quarterfinal of the Toray Pan Pacific Open 2011. Battling on outdoor hard courts of
the Ariake Colosseum, Tokyo, Japan, world number 4 Zvonareva outsmarted the world number 27 Kirilenko in just one hour and fourteen minutes with a straight set victory of 6-3, 6-3 on Thursday the 29th of September.
Younger Russian Kirilenko opted to serve first as she had just won the service pitch and both the players were able to win on their respective serves in the first four games to bring the scoreboard to even terms at 2-2. Again winning
on alternate serves the players managed to bring the opening set on to levelled terms at 3-3.
However, during the last three games, Zvonareva took on her agame and applied the break-serve-break technique to reel off a 6-3 victory of the opening set. Kirilenko was unable to hold serve in the seventh and ninth game because
of which she failed to secure her victory.
Although, Kirilenko had hit 76 percent of her first serves on target, she was unable to win most of her service games and bagged only 63 percent of first serves win against Zvonareva, who had accomplished a hundred percent win
of her first serves. Also, Zvonareva did not setup a single break point opportunity and thus, Kirilenko unable to break her opponent in the entire set.
Dominating from the very beginning, the elder Russian opened the second set and as she held serve in the first game, she went on to breaking her opponent in the second and by the end of the third game, Zvonareva was leading with
a 3-0. Meanwhile, Kirilenko got off to a bad start and lost her first service game, unable to place herself in the first three games.
It was not until the fourth game that Kirilenko finally held her serve and in the following three games the players again won on alternate serves and even though Kirilenko tried her best to reduce the deficit to 2-4, she was unable
to match her rival’s score. During the last few games the players finally held serve and by the ninth game Zvonareva smashed four consecutive aces to seal a 6-3 victory against the younger Russian.
The number four seed Zvonareva managed to secure a spot in the semi-final of the Toray Pan Pacific Open 2011.
Tags: