Vera Zvonareva Wins at Pattaya
Vera Zvonareva began the defence of her PTT Pattaya Open title on Tuesday with a sometimes difficult opening match against Austria’s Tamira Paszek.
The top-seeded Russian, who reached the final of both Wimbledon and the US Open last year and was a recent semi-finalist at the Australian Open, won 6-4 6-2. But it was Paszek who held the early advantage, breaking to lead 3-1. Zvonareva, though, responded by breaking back in the next game and then again to lead 5-4, before serving out the set to love. The second set was more straightforward, as Zvonareva broke to lead 1-0 and then again for 5-2.
Second seed Ana Ivanovic was also in action, and the Serb was grateful for a match that was all over within an hour. Her opponent was Thai wild card Nudnida Luangnam and the score was 6-0 6-2. She tied up the opening set with an ace, and her opponent did not win a game until the 10th game when she broke Ivanovic’s serve. She held her own serve for the first time for 5-2, but the former world number one and French Open champion then closed out the match.
“It was very warm today,” Ivanovic said. “I’ve been practising mainly in the morning, and yesterday I went to practise around three o’clock and I realised it’s a bit of a difference. So I’m really happy (it was a short match). It’s always tough to play against a girl you haven’t seen before, and especially she’s a local.
“There were a lot of positive things. The first match is hard, and as I said if you don’t know the opponent you try to a little bit suss out the way she plays and what she can do, so I tried to play a lot safer and I was not going for too many of my shots. I just tried to serve solid and play solid.”
There was disappointment as well for two other Thais in the draw, as Nicha Lertpitaksinchai was beaten 6-2 6-3 by Britain’s Elena Baltacha, and top Thai and 2010 finalist Tamarine Tanasugarn slumped to a 6-3 6-2 defeat against Ayumu Morita of Japan. But Nungnadda Wannasuk overcame fellow qualifier Zarina Diyas of Kazakhstan to set up a clash with Zvonareva.
Fourth seed Daniela Hantuchova, recently arrived in Pattaya after representing the Slovaks against Czech Republic in Fed Cup, showed no signs of suffering from her long trip as she took only 64 minutes to overwhelm Japan’s Kurumi Nara 6-2 6-1. Eighth seeded Italian Sara Errani was also in action, and she recovered from a slow start to defeat Kai-Chen Chang of Taipei 4-6 6-2 6-4.
An interesting match took place between Akgul Amanmuradova from Uzbekistan and Chinese seventh seed Jie Zheng. Amanmuradova edged the first set 6-4 but then should have lost the second as Zheng served at 5-4 and again at 6-5, and then led with a break in the tiebreak. But Amanmuradova dug deep and was rewarded with a straight sets victory when she claimed the tiebreak 8-6.
Report by: pentanglepromotions
Photo by: Vanida Loupisalchai
Credit: Pattaya Daily News (www.pattayadailynews.com)
No comments:
Post a Comment