Nadia Petrova wins battle of the Russians at Wimbledon

Written by Ian Baker

No 21 seed Nadia Petrova is safely through to the quarter-finals after easing past fellow Russian Alla Kudryavtseva 6-1, 6-4.

Russia had six women in the fourth round for the first time since 2005 and the name of Petrova on the draw sheet for the second week was hardly a surprise. But few would have expected 20-year-old Kudryavtseva, little known until her shock defeat of Maria Sharapova in the second round, to be joining her.


But Kudryavtseva, ranked 156 in the world, finally ran out of steam on Court 3 as her compatriot handed her a lesson in grass court tennis.

The power and consistency of Petrova, 26, was too much for her younger opponent to handle and she raced into a 4-0 lead in the first set. Kudryavtseva, admittedly, was not helping herself by gifting her opponents too many points on unforced errors.

An excellent service game by Petrova, featuring two aces, left Kudryavtseva serving to stay in the set at 1-5. Petrova easily broke again to love to win the set in just 24 minutes.

The second set looked like being a similar story as a dominant Petrova raced to a 3-0 lead. But Kudryavtseva at last started to show the sort of play that took her to victory over Sharapova and in glimpses against Pang Shay in the third round.

A brilliant cross-court winner allowed Kudryavtseva to break back and she continued to fight, saving two break points in the eighth game to take the score to 4-4.

But Petrova held serve and then capitalised on more Kudryavtseva unforced errors to break to love, taking the match in the process.

Petrova, runner-up in the pre-Wimbledon tournament in Eastbourne, will play another Russian, Elena Dementia, or Shahar Peer of Israel in the quarter-finals.

Despite her comprehensive defeat, Kudryavtseva will be more than happy with her week’s work. With her ranking set to rise into the top 100, she can look forward to automatic entry into more tournaments and the chance of more giant-killing acts.


Article from Wimbledon.org - Here
AP Photo/Sang Tan