US teenager Coco Vandeweghe produced a stunning fightback to defeat Wimbledon finalist Vera Zvonareva 2-6, 7-5, 6-4 in the second round of the San Diego Open on Thursday.
The 18-year-old Vandeweghe played a courageous and aggressive match, hammering away from inside the baseline and blowing overhead winners past her rattled opponent, who was clearly upset by the manner of her defeat.
“I just stopped playing and played stupid,” said Zvonareva, who shed tears in her postmatch press conference. “I was putting balls down the middle right into her hitting zone. I should have changed things. That’s not how a top player is supposed to play.”
PHOTO: REUTERS
Vandeweghe moves on to face two-time Grand Slam champion Svetlana Kuznetsova in the last eight after the Russian needed to call upon all her reserves to topple Italy’s Sara Errani 6-1, 6-7, 7-5.
In other matches, Slovakia’s Daniela Hantuchova crushed China’s Zheng Jie 6-2, 6-1 to earn a showdown with Russian Alisa Kleybanova, while Italy’s Flavia Pennetta overcame Russia’s Maria Kirilenko 6-4, 7-6 to set up a clash against second seed Samantha Stosur of Australia.
However, the day belonged to qualifier Vandeweghe, who had her home area crowd roaring as the San Diego resident battled to victory over former top five player Zvonareva.
PHOTO: AFP
Vandeweghe had only won two WTA Tour level matches coming into the contest, one of them over Argentine Gisela Dulko in the first round, but she had won two minor circuit events in June and felt like she was peaking.
The tall daughter of a former Olympic swimmer, Vandeweghe moves well for her height and sports a big serve and heavy groundstrokes.
While she grew nervous when she attempted to close out the match at 5-2 in the third set, eventually, she was able to break the Russian and win the contest when she crushed an inside out forehand winner
PHOTO: AFP
“It’s pretty cool,” the number 205 ranked Vandeweghe said. “It’s awesome to beat someone at that high of a level. It’s exciting to play one of those top 10 players and get a win off of them.”
Kuznetsova was not overly impressed with her erratic play after squandering a match point and 5-1 lead in the third set against the scrappy Errani, but she closed the match out convincingly once she knuckled down.
“There’s a saying in Russian, ‘What ends good is good,’” Kuznetsova said.
“I need matches like this because I won and I was fighting and it was really hard. I said, ‘Okay, it’s enough. You had too many chances and you have to go for it.’ I did the right thing in the end, even though it took me a long time,” she said.
■Danish Open
AP, COPENHAGEN
Top-seeded Caroline Wozniacki rallied from a set down to reach the Danish Open quarter-finals with a 4-6, 6-2, 6-0 win on Thursday over Iveta Benesova of the Czech Republic.
The third-ranked Wozniacki was broken five times in the first set, where only one of the games went with serve. But the third-ranked Dane then found her stride and held serve the rest of the way, adding two breaks in the second set and three in the third.
Wozniacki will face fifth-seeded Julia Goerges of Germany for a spot in the semi-finals.
In other second-round matches, Slovakia’s Polana Hercog rallied to beat Britain’s Anne Keothavong 4-6, 6-0, 6-4, Anna Chakvetadze ousted fellow Russian Anna Lapushchenkova 6-3, 6-4 and Sorona Cirstea of Romania overcame Slovenia’s Katarina Srebotnik 7-5, 4-6, 6-2.
■Washington Classic
Reuters, WASHINGTON
Andy Roddick’s preparations for the US Open suffered a jolt when the ninth-ranked American suffered a lop-sided 6-3, 6-3 defeat to Frenchman Gilles Simon in the third round of the Washington Classic on Thursday.
The second-seeded Roddick struggled to maintain any consistency, landing only 55 percent of his first serves and was out-aced by the Frenchman 7-3 during the 69-minute match.
“It was just a bad night. I really don’t have much of a defense for it,” a frustrated Roddick softly told reporters. “I really don’t feel you can defend it. I didn’t feel right physically, I didn’t feel right mentally. It was just a pretty bad effort.”
In other matches, top seed Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic, playing in his first tournament since losing to Rafael Nadal in the Wimbledon final, edged Andrey Golubev of Kazakhstan 6-3, 5-7, 7-5.
Also making the quarter-finals of the US$1.2 million hardcourt tournament were third seed Fernando Verdasco of Spain and fourth-seeded Marin Cilic of Croatia.
The 27-year-old Roddick, a three-times Washington champion, said he has felt sluggish over the last few weeks, admitting “something is just not right.”
“I’m a little concerned about that,” Roddick said. “Feeling lethargic and not all there energy-wise, that’s not fun for me. I don’t enjoy nights like tonight. It could be something simple, maybe a vitamin deficiency. I promise you I’m going to figure this out before I do that again. That’s not what I built my reputation around.”
Simon, ranked 33rd and seeded 13th, made the most of his chances, converting three of five break-point opportunities against Roddick while never losing his own serve.
The Frenchman broke Roddick in the second game of the final set to take a 2-0 lead and served out the contest.
“I managed to return his serve today,” said Simon, who had failed to win a set against Roddick in their prior two meetings. “When he decided to wait [and play from the baseline], I was more consistent than him. And when he decided to attack and be more aggressive, he made some mistakes.”
Roddick, playing in just his second tournament since losing to Taiwan’s Lu Yeh-hsun at Wimbledon, refused to blame his performance on his light schedule.
“There is a reason that I haven’t been playing a lot,” he said. “It’s because I’ve been playing like crap. I felt I didn’t do one thing right tonight. I honestly don’t think it would have mattered who I played.”
additional reporting by staff writer
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