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Indian Wells Ambience 2019

Zvonareva scraps her way to Doha final


The remarkable run of Vera Zvonareva at the Sony Ericsson WTA Championships continues. The Russian is through to the final in Doha after a 7-6(7) 3-6 6-3 victory over compatriot Elena Dementieva.

The lowest ranked player to have qualified by right, the world No.9 came intothe semi-final undefeated after the round-robin stage, with victories against Ana Ivanovic, Svetlana Kuznetsova and world No.1 Jelena Jankovic yesterday.

Both players struggled with their serve throughout…

The 24-year-old is now one match away from the biggest title of her career – and took a little revenge for her semi-final defeat at the Beijing Olympics, where Dementieva went on to claim gold.

Both players struggled with their serve throughout, both players being broken six times and neither hitting a single ace as they failed to produce their best tennis.

But Dementieva’s was particularly poor, nine double faults – compared to three from Zvonareva – perhaps a sign of fatigue following her three-set workout against Nadia Petrova yesterday.

No.5 seed Dementieva served for the first set twice, at 5-4 and 6-5, and she held a set point in the tiebreak at 7-6 before losing three points on the bounce 9-7.

Both players settled down and produced some decent rallies at times. But Zvonareva dropped her serve with a double-fault to fall behind 2-0, and then wasted a break point when down 3-1. The break proved crucial, as Dementieva levelled the match.

The No.8 seed quickly regained the upper hand in the final set, breaking for 2-0 when Dementieva produced a backhand error.

And although the Russian broke back at 4-2, another poor backhand allowed Zvonareva to break once more and serve out the match to love.


Tim Farthing, Tennishead Editorial Director & Owner, has been a huge tennis fan his whole life. He's a tennis journalist and entrepreneur as well as playing tennis to a national standard. He also helps manage his local club and volunteers for his local tennis organisation. He's a specialist in content about the administration of professional tennis and tennis coaching for all levels.