CommonwealthBank Tennis Classic 2008

PENNETTA AND PETROVA REACH THE SECOND ROUND

09 Sep 2008

by Barry Wood

Third seed Flavia Pennetta and fourth seed Nadia Petrova both reached the second round of the Commonwealth Bank Tennis Classic on Tuesday, but in contrasting styles.

Pennetta took nearly two hours to overcome a determined Vania King 7-6 6-1, with the first set alone taking 76 minutes. Both players fought furiously from the baseline in some excellent rallies, as Pennetta struggled to gain an upper hand against her American opponent.

Pennetta broke for 1-0, but King broke back in the next game. Then King held four break points to lead 3-1 before Pennetta held for 2-2. Pennetta then broke for 3-2, saved a break point to hold for 4-2 but then allowed King to level at 4-4 on her fourth break point. The battle continued as the set reached an exciting climax, with Pennetta failing to win three break points for a 6-5 lead. In the tiebreak the Italian led 5-1, held two set points at 6-4, saved a set point at 7-6, before finally edging through 9-7. In all, Pennetta had saved nine of 11 break points in the set. That appeared to break King’s resistance, and Pennetta swept through the second set with comparative ease.

And ease was the word to describe Petrova’s victory. Her entire match took 11 minutes less than Pennetta’s opening set, as she overwhelmed Aiko Nakamura of Japan 6-3 6-1. By the end the Russian was in total control, giving up just two points in the final three games.

"I must say it was a tough opening round match," said Petrova, although no-one was convinced. "This is a surface that suits her really well, but I’m quite happy the way I finished off the match well. I kept the pressure on and felt I was in good condition today.

"I felt comfortable all the way through. I even felt good physically. I’m very happy about that, because the other days I’ve been here were quite heavy, adjusting to the weather. I moved well, I kept the concentration very well from the beginning until the end of the match. So I’m very happy with my performance."

Two other seeds were in action, with seventh seed Sara Errani of Italy easing past South African qualifier Natalie Grandin 6-2 6-1, but eighth seeded Canadian Aleksandra Wozniak falling 3-6 6-3 6-2 to American veteran Jill Craybas.

In other matches, Tathiana Garbin beat Melinda Czink 6-2 7-6, Yuan-Jan Chan defeated Vasilisa Bardina 6-2 6-1, qualifier Olga Savchuk earned a meeting with top seed Daniela Hantuchova by beating Alla Kudryavtseva 7-5 6-2, and Anastasia Rodionova was winning 6-2 3-0 when Julia Vakulenko retired with an injury to her right wrist.

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