Vera Zvonareva outclassed by Petra Kvitova in the third round of the Mutua Madrid Open
World number three, Vera Zvonareva of Russia crashed out of the third round of the Mutua Madrid Open, losing to the 18th ranked Petra Kvitova of Czech Republic on Wednesday afternoon. The Russian suffered a straight
sets 1-6, 4-6 defeat in just 77 minutes, allowing Kvitova a passage into the quarter-final of the $4,500,000 WTA (Women’s Tennis Association) clay-court tournament.
The in-form Zvonareva failed to put up her true class and crumbled against the Czech opponent in a humiliating manner at Park Manzanares in Madrid, Spain. She defeated Kvitova 6-2, 6-4, in the quarter-final of the Australian Open
this year but the sixteenth seed exhibited a magnificent display of pro tennis to oust Zvonareva from the Madrid Open. It was the 20th victory for Kvitova in the current WTA season, levelling the all-time head-to-head series against the Russian
to 2-2.
“I knew I had to start fast and play aggressively,” expressed Kvitova in her post match reviews, “Vera was playing a bit defensively from the first point. She played better in the second set, hitting some winners, and I got a little
bit nervous, but I knew what I had to do.”
Despite of a par first serve precision of 54, Kvitova was broken just one in the entire contest, while she stung four out of six serve breaks to the Russian serve. She appeared absolutely unplayable in the opening set, tearing
apart Zvonareva, who merely managed to hold serve in one game. The Russian showed some signs of life in the following set, registering her first serve break of the contest but couldn’t sustain the momentum and lost the matchup to Kvitova.
After the two contestants held serve in the opening two games of the first set, Kvitova started off her demolition job. She stung two straight serve breaks to race to set point in no time and then sealed off the opener with a cracking
forehand at 6-1.
The Czech continued to impress the crowd at Madrid, breaking into 3-1 lead in the second set as well. Zvonareva finally broke for the first time in the competition to cut the deficit and level the scores at 4-all but she couldn’t
contain the furry of her opponent for long. Kvitova broke again in the ninth game and then served out comprehensively to book a quarter-final spot at Mutua Madrid Open.
The Czech will square off against Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia in the quarter-final clash this week. The Slovak stunned former world number one Maria Sharapova of Russia in straight sets to make it to the final eight at Madrid.
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