Zvonareva battles past Azarenka in Doha
Vera Zvonareva has prevailed 7-6, 6-4 in a round-robin battle against Victoria Azarenka at the WTA Tour Championships in Doha.
While neither of the two would make a great poker player, each openly expressing their frustrations on court when things weren’t going their way, what they did deliver was the tightly fought tennis match fans tuning in to the action in Doha had been waiting for.
Still, these days Zvonareva’s remonstrations with herself seem to pay dividends, rather than marking the beginning of a meltdown, and the second seed was able to dig herself out of a hole on more than one occasion during the match, with her backhand down the line proving a particularly effective weapon for the duration.
In a match where both players’ games waxed and waned, Zvonareva let a few more chances to break serve pass her by that she would have liked in the first set against the Belarusian, but the Wimbledon and US Open finalist made up for it in the first set tiebreak where after gaining the mini-break in the first point she was never headed.
The first of Zvonareva’s missed two break point chances came in the opening game of a match where both players immediately went on the offensive, but the eighth seed absorbed the pressure to hold and when the Russian sent a forehand long with break point against her in the next game Azarenka suddenly had a 2-0 lead.
The break back though was immediate and decisive, a backhand winner from Zvonareva getting proceedings back on serve, and a service hold the next game levelling the scores at 2-2.
A double fault then handed the new world No. 2 the chance to win her third straight game, but again Zvonareva was unable to convert the break point opportunity and once more Azarenka went on the attack to hold serve.
The Belarusian then went a break up in the sixth game of the match, but again Zvonareva hit back, breaking her opponent to love before holding firm in her next service game to level again at 4-4.
Another break point opportunity went begging for the 26-year-old in the ninth game of the match and she found herself serving to stay in the set, which she managed with ease to move the scores to 5-5 after one hour on court in the Doha heat.
That soon became 6-6 after two more surprisingly easy service holds, and it was Zvonareva who extended her unbeaten record in tiebreaks against Azarenka to 4-0 to finally clinch the first set.
Ominously, Zvonareva had never lost a match against the world No. 10 when she’d won a breaker, but it was Azarenka who started stronger in the second set, again taking a 2-0 advantage, but Zvonareva got the set back on level terms with a break to love in its sixth game.
The victory was finally sealed with a second break of serve in the tenth game of the second set, with Zvonareva finally winning on the third match point.
The win was Zvonareva’s second for the tournament, after dispatching Jelena Jankovic in their round-robin match yesterday. She now only has one match left to play in the White Group, against US Open champion Kim Clijsters, with a semi-final berth already appearing likely for the 2008 WTA Championships runner-up.
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