April 9: Semifinals Saturday

Coverage

2011

Family Circle Cup

Sunday, 10 April 2011 07:35

April 9: Semifinals Saturday

Written by Christina Ward

Singles Semifinals

Caroline Wozniacki and Jelena Jankovic, the two highest seeds left in the tournament by Saturday morning, played a very tight Semifinal with seven breaks of serve in the first set alone. Wozniacki broke Jankovic at 4-5 to take the first set, 6-4, and only needed one break point chance to take Jankovic's serve in the second set, again at 4-5, to win the match. Jankovic was frustrated with the way Wozniacki was able to retrieve almost every ball and hit it deep into the court. About her strategy, Wozniacki said, "I had to be aggressive and try to hit it deep because she is such a good fighter and she doesn't miss if you just give it to her half court." Jankovic said she knew she missed opportunities, including two break points not converted in the second set. "So, you know, sometimes I come to the net and I construct points and I do all the things and then I'm just about to finish it and then I either make a mistake or she does [a] great passing shot," Jankovic said. As the match progressed, clouds started to move in and the wind picked up, which Jankovic thought affected her serve. "For some reason, I couldn't really go for my first serve because it was quite windy, so I had to kind of play it safe with the serve, so I didn't really get any free points from it; and she was returning well," Jankovic explained.

Even though Wozniacki has not had great starts in her past three encounters, the World No.1 has shown great poise in finishing the matches. In the last four sets Wozniacki has played, she has broken her opponent at 4-5 for the set each time. Wozniacki said that she is in great shape and that the length of her previous two matches had not affected her physically going into the Semifinal.

The second Semifinal, in which Russian Elena Vesnina met China's Shuai Peng, was very tight in the first set. Vesnina saved two break points serving at 4-5, then broke Peng's serve in the next game but failed to serve out the set. However, she won the first set tiebreak, 7-6(4). Peng was content to stay at the baseline for the majority of the match and Vesnina used the drop shot very effectively to end points quickly. Peng said that Vesnina's serve toward the end of the second set was working better than hers and helped Vesnina to a 7-6(4), 6-3 victory. Peng appeared to be moving poorly, later blaming her right knee, which she said she had tweaked in Indian Wells in March. Peng said she will take a few days off to rest before heading to the European clay court tournaments.

Vesnina reflected in the post-match interview that she is happy to be playing after dealing with a wrist injury. She said that she changed techniques before Indian Wells that helped to keep the pain away. "I just need to enjoy my time on the court because when you have [an] injury and you're not playing, it's like your life [is] on pause," she commented. Vesnina also said that compatriot Vera Zvonareva had a similar wrist injury and helped her with treatment.

Caroline Wozniacki leads the head-to-head against Vesnina, 4-1, but the two had two tight three-set matches at Ponte Verde Beach in 2009 and 2010. This will be Vesnina's fifth singles final but she will still be looking to win her first singles title.

Doubles Semifinals

There was a great crowd in attendance for the last Americans standing in the tournament, Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Meghann Shaughnessy, who played the top-seeded team of Kveta Peschke and Katarina Srebotnik. Both of the well-established doubles teams worked very well with their partners and made great use of the whole court. Mattek-Sands did an especially great job in closing points at the net. Mattek-Sands and Shaughnessy won the first set 6-2 after breaking Peschke's serve twice. Peschke and Srebotnik quickly got to a 3-0 double-break lead, in the second but Mattek-Sands and Shaughnessy brought the set back to 3-3.. In what was the seventh break of the second set, Mattek-Sands and Shaughnessy won the match 6-2, 6-4. Mattek-Sands will go for her second Family Circle Cup doubles title, having won in 2009, partnering Nadia Petrova.

An hour after their singles match, Vesnina and Peng had to meet again on the opposite side of the net in the Doubles Semifinal. Peng and her partner Jie Zheng had a very difficult time with Sania Mirza's forehand which was lethal on Saturday. Peng and Zheng tried to come to net to finish points but found it almost impossible to volley affectively off Mirza's forehand. Even Vesnina was impressed by her partner's play. After one of Mirza's blistering cross-court forehand winners that painted the sideline, Vesnina clapped with her racquet and bowed to her partner. Peng and Zheng were down 1-4 in the second set but were able to win the next 4 games by hitting more to Vesnina, who was the more error-prone player late in the second set. Still, Mirza and Vesnina were too powerful for their opponents and won in straight sets, 6-2, 7-5.