Vesnina/Paes overpower Hsieh/Matkowski to reach the quarters – Australian Open 2012
Fifth seeded duo of Elena Vesnina and Leander Paes pounced over the Taiwanese-Pole team of Su-Wei Hsieh and Marcin Matkowski in straight sets at the Australian Open 2012 on Wednesday. They formulated a 6-3, 7-5 victory over their rivals’ to advance into the final eight at this major hard court tournament held in Melbourne, Australia.
The Russian-Indian collaboration showed amazing co-ordination to dump their lower ranked opponents in an hour and eight minutes long marathon. They not only booked a place in the final eight at the Melbourne Park but also moved a step closer to the $135,500 prize money.
Vesnina and Paes lost their serve twice in the opening set but quickly made a fitting reply. They cashed in four out of six break opportunities and bagged the opener with a 6-3 score line in half an hour. The Russian-Indian pair clobbered a much better first serve share of 68 percent as opposed to their rivals’ 45 percent and registered an acceptable 7 out of 13 points on it.
The high flying duo carried their momentum into the following set and held their opening serve. They fended off two out of seven breakpoints they came across but cashed in half of the six break chances to pocket the set with a 7-5 success. Vesnina and Paes jolted down a lower first serve share this time but earned an impressive 10 out of 17 points on it.
Overall, the Russian-Indian junction coughed 18 unforced errors but smacked 26 winners. They ultimately sealed the match by winning 62 points as opposed to the Taiwanese-Pole team of 54 points.
The winning combination of Vesnina and Paes will next confront the fourth seeded duo of America’s Lisa Raymond and India’s Rohan Bopanna who trashed the local wild card entrants, Casey Dellacqua and Matthew Ebden, in straight sets to set-up this encounter.
Seventh seeded tandem of Andrea Hlavackova of Czech Republic and Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi of Pakistan awaits the Russian-Indian team in the quarter-finals. They dumped the wild card entrants, Jelena Jankovic and Bernard Tomic, in straight sets to reach this spot on Monday. Hlavackova and Qureshi kept their entire serves comfortable and converted half of the six break opportunities to their advantage.
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