Top Four Seeds Into The Semis at Linz
31st October 2006
In a rare occasion, the top four seeds of the Generali Ladies Linz advanced into the semifinal round. Top seed Maria Sharapova won, although was stretched by Serbian Ana Ivanovic, 7-6(3), 7-5. Second seeded Nadia Petrova meanwhile had an easy match against Samantha Stosur, 6-1, 6-3. While still holding on to her hopes of earning a berth in the season-ending Sony Ericsson Championships in Madrid, Patty Schnyder, seeded third, rolled past Vera Zvonareva,7-6(2), 6-4. Czech teenager, Nicole Vaidisova meanwhile relied on her aces in disposing of Serbian Jelena Jankovic, 5-7,7-6(5),6-4.
Sharapova was tested in the first set by first-time opponent Ivanovic. With the Russian serving for the first set at 5-4, Ivanovic held off Sharapova’s charge by breaking her serve to even the match at 5-5. Two games later, both players held their respective serves and pushed the first set for a tiebreaker, which Sharapova handily won. In the second set, Sharapova was serving for the match at 5-3 when she double faulted to hand the game to Ivanovic who clawed her way back by leveling the set at 5-5. Sharapova then showed her mettle by winning the next two games to win their first ever meeting 7-6(3), 7-5.
“When you play someone at a pretty high level for the first time, it takes a while to get used to it; you don’t know what to expect from the first point,” Sharapova said. “She seemed to be going for her shots often, and some came unbelievably hard and deep, and were pretty consistent in the first set. At some times they’re like a loose cannon and you don’t know what’s going to happen - that’s difficult.I didn’t really finish it off in both sets, but credit to her, she hung in there and played a good game in the first set to get back into it. Definitely, in the second set, I had two double faults and made a few sloppy errors. But I hung in there, too.”
Sharapova’s opponent will be Swiss Patty Schnyder who cruised past Zvonareva. Schnyder used up all her varied court moves in countering Zvonareva’s powerful shots. Schnyder went on to win the first set by closing out the tiebreak. In the second set, Schnyder showed her guile by breaking Zvonareva in the crucial game to set up a meeting with the top-seeded Sharapova.
The other semifinal pits Nadia Petrova against Nicole Vaidisova. Petrova easily won her match angainst Stosur while Vaidisova had to play Jankovic for over two hours before emerging victorious.
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