Vera Zvonareva topples Alexandra Dulgheru in the quarterfinal of Brussels Ladies Open
Russian tennis ace, Vera Zvonareva had an impressive victory over the world number 28 Alexandra Dulgheru of Romania in the quarterfinal of the Brussels Ladies Open in Brussels on Thursday. Ranked-third in the world, Zvonareva took
down her opponent in straight sets, 6-0, 6-1, taking just 47 minutes of play to book her berth in the semi-final of the tournament.
The 26-year-old Zvonareva exhibited her magnificent tennis skills to eject the Romanian veteran form the event. Although Zvonareva’s serve percentage was almost similar to her opponent’s, her point winning proficiency proved to
be the vital difference. The Russian player won 96 per cent first serve points in the contest while her Romanian opponent lagged far behind with a huge difference of 60 per cent.
Dulgheru had a very careless start to the game and failed to build up the pace to compete with Zvonareva. Her footwork was motionless and her strokes missed their marks on regularity. Zvonareva on the other hand was far more agile
than the Romanian competitor and a difference of six years of tennis experience between the two opponents was clearly highlighted.
Zvonareva anticipated Dulgheru’s moves very well. It was expected that the right-handed angling serve of Dulgheru will create some problems for the Russian, but nothing happened like that. Zvonareva met her opponent’s serve with
ease and broke her opponent thrice, as she cut down the angles of her opponent’s strokes.
Zvonareva ignited the opener in a very aggressive fashion and despite having a lower serve percentage of 58 percent she bagged 100 percent of her serve points, as the player converted three of the five breakpoints against her opponent.
The Russian player broke immediately in the first set to lead 4-0 early. Once getting into the momentum, Zvonareva kept cruising through the set without any resistance from her opponent. Dulgheru’s bleak serve led her down in the
set and allowed her opponent to seal the first set at 6-0.
Closing the opener assertively, Zvonareva looked very positive in the second set. The charged Russian kept her winning momentum flowing in the second set and lost only one game to clinch the match with a breadstick in the second
set.
She concluded her straight sets victory by scoring 96 percent of points on her service, 64 percent of points on return and 76 percent of points in total. The player has also improved her win loss mark to 24- 8 matches with the
help of this win.
The Russian is set for a semi-final meeting with eighth seed Peng Shuai of China, as the two battle it out for a place in the final match of the event. The two will contest their eighth career match on Friday with Zvonareva dominating
their head-to-head series by 7-0.
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