Zheng Jie overpowers injury-stricken Flavia Pennetta to clinch the Auckland title – Tennis Special
Chinese Zheng Jie conquered the injured fourth seed, Flavia Pennetta and ended her five and a half-year title drought at the ASB Classic 2012 on Sunday afternoon. She earned a 2-6, 6-3, 2-0 retirement win over the Italian who was forced to pull out due to a lower back injury at this first WTA (Women’s Tennis Association) hard court event taking place in Auckland, New Zealand.
A former world number 15, Zheng, recreated her 2009 magic and overpowered the injured Pennetta, Italy’s first top-10 player, in their sixth meeting. She not only avenged her loss at the Doha WTA Premier event last year but also levelled the head-to-head series by 3-3 against the Italian.
World number 20, Pennetta, reached this spot without losing a set. She kept her momentum and quickly swiped in the opener with a 6-2 victory. Regardless of requiring a medical time-out when she was leading 5-2, the Italian maintained her form and clinched the set convincingly. She dusted away all five breakpoints she came across and capitalised on two out of three break chances. Pennetta also manifested 12 out of 18 points on her first serve share.
The 28-year-old Chinese sought the track to grab her fourth WTA title in the second set. She capitalised on the errors committed by the injured Pennetta and after breaking the Italian’s serve twice, Zheng sealed the equaliser with a 6-3 win. She lost her serve once but converted two out of three break opportunities to her advantage. The Chinese also formulated a higher first serve share and clinched 18 out of 27 points on it.
Zheng kept momentum floating in the final set and after capitalising on the only break opportunity, she went 2-0 up. However, the Italian felt severe pain in her back and was forced to retire.
"I'm a little tired, for sure," Zheng said of the final. "The first set was a little tough for me. Many of the games went to deuce but I lost all of them. My husband came to the court and told me it was just a few points and I still had a chance that I had to keep fighting. I always fight hard. In the end, I was a little bit lucky.”
The Chinese automatically earned her fourth WTA career title and sent a warning to all of the top players for the upcoming Australian Open, first of the four Grand Slam events taking place on the hard courts. A former semi-finalist at the Wimbledon Championships and Melbourne Park, Zheng is now bidding to reach the title-round of a Grand Slam. However, she still needs to focus on her breakpoint conversion skills when facing a top-25 player and should quickly ward off breakpoints she faces.
"I don't know what it is yet. I'm going to have an MRI done tomorrow, I think," the Italian said. “It's still a good week for me, though. I'd like to be in the finals every week, singles and doubles."
Pennetta crippled all her rivals in this tournament in straight sets. She played her best tennis in this Grand Slam build-up tournament. An injury caused her to retire from the final round or she would have easily conquered Zheng. The Italian is resting this week in order to recover quickly for the Melbourne Grand Slam, starting from January 16th.
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