Vera Zvonareva vs Agnieszka Radwanska – Match Preview:
TEB BNP Paribas WTA Championships 2011
This year’s TEB BNP Paribas WTA Championships will be held in the magnificent city of Istanbul, Turkey. The eight of the best players in tennis are set to compete for the third round robin match on Thursday the 27th
of October 2011.
The second match to kick off is a duel between Vera Zvonareva and Agnieszka Radwanska on the third day of the event and the players will take up the challenge on indoor hard courts of the Sinan Erdem Dome in Istanbul, Turkey.
Zvonareva and Radwanska have contested against each other five times prior to this event and the Pole (Radwanska) has a competitive edge over Russian (Zvonareva) since the head-to-head series is led by Radwanska, who has three
wins against Zvonareva’s two.
The first time the two met was in 2007 at Moscow and the Russian had won that match in straight sets. After a pause of three years, the again met but much had changed since then. They met four times this year and the sixth seeded
Russian was only able to win one game against Radwanska’s three. The last time they met was at Tokyo Pan Pacific during the final match and Radwanska had not only defeated Zvonareva but also bagged the title.
Zvonareva has been unable to perform to her utmost capacity and has had a turbulent year and much was expected from the Russian but she was unable to rise to the occasion. Nevertheless, she has bagged two titles; one at Doha by
defeating Caroline Wozniacki and the other at Baku. Zvonareva has powerful ground strokes and is a barrage of drop shots; she successfully made it to the finals and semi finals of many tournaments this year.
Although, Zvonareva is currently ranked as world number 6, she saw a career high ranking of world number two. Overall, the Russian has won twelve WTA singles titles and was capable of reaching the finals of the year-end Championships
in 2008. Moreover, she clogged a bronze medal at the Beijing Olympics which were also held in 2008 and was a runner-up at the 2010 US Open Championships.
On the other hand, Radwanska is making her debut at the season finale Championships. The Pole has had a remarkable career and has improved her performance ten-folds. This year the eighth seeded Pole accomplished three WTA titles;
winning Carlsbad, a title in Tokyo and then Beijing. She can rightfully be called an underdog for this event. However, it was extremely unfortunate that she was unable to perform against Wozniacki during her first round robin match. Nonetheless, she should
keep hope alive!
Numerous tennis doyens believe that Radwanska will continue to reign over Zvonareva in 2011 as the Russian still has to prove her mettle against the Pole.
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