Zahlavova-Strycova and Yaroslava Shvedova bag wins at the 2011 Sony Ericsson Open Singles
Barbora Zahlavova-Strycova of Czech Republic defeated Sloane Stephens in straight sets 6-4, 6-2 to book a place in the second round of 2011 Sony Ericsson Open in Miami, Florida.
The Czech looked very settled right from the start and created match winning opportunities for herself. She scored the crucial serve break to take the opening set 6-4. Zahlavova-Strycova pushed her opponent to the baseline with
her aggressive ground play.
In the second set Zahlavova-Strycova completely dominated the challenger dropping only a couple of games in the set. She converted one of the match points with a magnificent forehand down the line. Besides her attacking approach,
the Czech kept her defensive game in check as well which allowed her to play with freedom.
Zahlavova’s serve was on target most of the times winning her crucial points in the contest. She dominated the challenger in the serve return department as well with her accurate shots. On the other hand Sloane Stephens of United
States couldn’t handle the heat and suffered the onslaught.
The Czech has produced marvelous performances since the start of this season. She reached the quarterfinals at 2011 Brisbane and then went as far as third round in the 2011 Australian Open. However the most considerable result
was achieved at Monterrey Open where she defeated Benesova to lift second Women’s Tennis Association title of her career. Just a few days ago Zahlavova-Strycova made a significant impact at 2011 Indian Wells as well reaching the third round of the tournament.
Zahlavova-Strycova has reached as high as world number 39 in the WTA rankings and has improved her game considerably over the past few months. Her current WTA ranking of world number 50 doesn’t justify her real potential and talent.
She certainly has the ability to upset a few top seeded players at this premier WTA tournament.
Meanwhile Yaroslava Shvedova of Kazakhstan earned a hard fought 6-3, 7-5, 7-6 victory against Italian Sara Errani to make it to the second round of the Sony Ericson Championships.
The match was played on a highly competitive note as both players looked to dominate each other. Shvedova took the first set 6-4 after making a serve break early one.
Errani made a strong come back to win the next set 7-5. She created all sorts of problems for the Czech in the set and started the decider as a favorite.
Both players played superb tennis as the final set went into a decider however Shvedova managed to regroup herself and held her nerves to complete a satisfactory win.
Shvedova has bagged important victories right through her WTA career and will be hoping to continue her good form in her next matches at the competition.
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