Wozniacki wins while Zvonareva and Sharapova crash on Day 1 – WTA Championships 2011
The forty-first edition of the WTA Tour Championships went underway in Istanbul from October 25, 2011. The championships make their debut in Istanbul where the 2011 TEB BNP Paribas WTA Championships will take place at the Sinan Erdem Dome.
The first day saw Samantha Stosur (Australia) defeat world number 2, Maria Sharapova (Russia) 6-1, 7-5 in the women’s singles round robin, white-group match. World number 7, Stosur easily scored a victory against the 2004 Wimbledon women’s singles champion Sharapova. Australia’s Stosur, who has won only three career titles as compared to 24 won by Sharapova, looked in nice touch as she saved six out of seven breakpoints and conceded not a single double fault against her Russian opponent. However, if Sharapova reforms herself and wins this tournament, she can make her way to the top of the women’s ranking.
In the women’s singles round robin, red-group match, Caroline Wozniacki (Denmark) played against Agnieszka Radwanska (Poland). World number one Wozniacki was in excellent form as she took on the 22-year old Radwanska in a grilling encounter. In the first set, Radwanska played well against the top-ranked Wozniacki with a score of 7-5, but in the next two sets, Wozniacki came back strong proving her worth and won both sets 6-2, 6-4. The final score reading 5-7, 6-2, 6-4, was enough for Wozniacki to enter the next round in the WTA Tour Championships. The match would have turned into a nightmare for the 21-year old Wozniacki, who was looking shaky at some moments of the match. Although Radwanska lost the match, still she proved to be a worthy opponent for the top-ranked Danish player.
This win also helped Wozniacki stay alive in the bid to end the second consecutive year ranked first in the world, which will boost her confidence as she moves ahead in the WTA Tour Championships. The attack and counter attack by both the players continued throughout the match, something which would have seen as a shocking revelation for Wozniacki, as she played a fighting battle which went on for two hours and thirty-nine minutes before triumphing over the Polish player.
In the second match contested in the red group, Petra Kvitova (Czech Republic) played to an easy straight-set win against Vera Zvonareva (Russia), 6-2, 6-4. The match was filled with double faults and misdirected shots, something which was not expected from either of the players as Kvitova, who is the reigning Wimbledon’s women’s singles champion and stands at world number 3 while Zvonareva ranks at world number 6.
The match went for an hour and a half before the Czech Republic’s Kvitova claimed her dominance over the Russian. Kvitova was losing her momentum during the second set which might have given Zvonareva an upset win over the 2011 Wimbledon Champion, but she made her return with some elegant shots accompanied by the mistakes her opponents did, giving Kvitova ample room to win the match, 6-2, 6-4.
Tags: