Yaroslava Shvedova’s exceptional run at the Roland Garros 2012 – Tennis Special
Kazakhstani tennis star, Yaroslava Shvedova, displayed top notch performance and cruised to the quarters through qualifiers at the French Open 2012, second of the four Grand Slam events held in Paris, France. Her superb efforts paid off as she rose 80 spots
at the WTA Premier Rankings and made her second quarter-final berth at the Grand Slam events.
Shvedova showed awe-inspiring in her three weeks of non-stop action at this prestigious clay court event. She entered this tournament standing at 142nd rank and gathered steam after registering victories at the qualifying competition. She stomped
over Croatia’s Ajla Tomljanovic in straight sets in her opening qualifying match.
The Kazakh carried her rhythm in the following round and crippled the American challenger, Coco Vandeweghe, with a breadstick. In the final qualifying round, she unleashed her true colours and devastated Romania’s Elena Bogdan with double breadsticks to
enter the main draw.
In the opening round at this major clay court tournament, the gorgeous Shvedova stayed focused to carve out a straight set victory against the Luxembourgian star, Mandy Minella.
The heavy underdog went berserk in her match against the Swedish ace, Sofia Arvidsson. She swiftly held her entire serves after brushing off all four breakpoints she faced and cashed in half of the 10 break chances to register a stunning 6-1, 6-0 score line.
Shvedova squared off the Spanish rising star, Carla Suarez Navarro, in the round of 32 and clobbered a straight set victory despite losing her serve three times. After earning this limelight, she set up a date with the defending champion and the seventh
seed, Li Na from China.
The Kazakh qualifier made a sloppy start against the top-10 star and eventually went 3-6, 2-2 down. However, she unleashed flurry of groundstrokes afterwards and reeled off the last 10 games in a row, ultimately jolting down a 3-6, 6-2, 6-0 victory and sending
out warning to all top class players of the tennis world.
"I was just fighting every ball and focusing on what I needed to do, but believe me, I was thinking a lot," the always-charismatic Kazakh was quoted afterwards. "I had a game plan today, it just didn't work very well in the first set because she was playing
very well. But I figured it out and changed my game from there. For now, I think this is the most incredible win I've had."
The 24-year-old Shvedova stormed into the red dirt in her quarter-final match against the reigning Wimbledon champion, Petra Kvitova. She quickly pocketed the opener and was a break up in the second set. She also took a 4-2 lead in the third set but subsequently
bowed out to the fourth seed.
Shvedova reflected after losing to the Czech number one, "I had zero energy left at the end. It has been a super long tournament, it's like my third week in a row. In the third set I was just telling myself to fight.”
Apart from exiting form the last eight at this clay court Grand Slam event, the Kazakh stole the spotlight in the tennis world and jumped to the world number 62. She also became the 22nd qualifier in the Open Era to make a final eight berth at
the Grand Slam and the first since Kaia Kanepi cruised into the quarters at the Wimbledon Championships in 2010.
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