Williams Sisters knocked out by Kirilenko/Petrova in pre-quarters – US Open 2012
Olympic gold medallists, Serena and Venus Williams, crashed out to the fourth seeded Russians, Maria Kirilenko and Nadia Petrova, with a breadstick at the Flushing Meadows 2012 on Monday. They suffered a brutal 1-6, 4-6 loss against the Russians in the round
of 16 at this last of the four Grand Slam events held in Queens, United States.
The local wild card entrants, Williams Sisters displayed dismal performance throughout the clash. After enduring a disappointing loss in the third round, the Americans exited from this major hard court event.
Kirilenko and Petrova stormed into the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. After the American veterans held their opening serve in the second game, the seeds unleashed flurry of groundstrokes and reeled off five games in a row. They swiped their
entire serves without facing any breakpoint and cashed in both break chances to pull out the opener with a breadstick.
Williams Sisters, who are coming from conquering the Wimbledon Championships and London Olympics, failed to seek their rhythm in the follow-up set. They suffered the first blow in the opening game and fell at 0-2. Regardless of keeping their remaining serves,
the Americans failed to recover and eventually endured a 4-6 shock. They squandered three break opportunities and dusted away only one out of two breakpoints they faced.
Summing up performance of the American icons, Serena and Venus hammered 16 winners but spilled 19 unforced errors which cost them the match. They also clobbered a lower first serve share of 58 per cent in contrast with their opponents’ 64 per cent and sealed
the match with 34 points.
The Russian junction on the other hand booked a spot in the quarter-finals where eighth seeded Spaniards, Nuria Llagostera Vives and Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez, waits. The Spanish duo bounced back to overpower the ninth seeded Americans, Raquel Kops-Jones
and Abigail Spears, in a three-set thriller to set up this encounter.
The sixth seeded Russians, Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina, will join Williams Sisters towards the exit doors. They were underplayed by the German-Chinese duo, Sabine Lisicki and Shuai Peng, in troublesome three sets on another court.
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