Thursday 9 September 2010

Women's US Open - Caroline, Vera to battle out SF

Caroline Wozniacki and Vera Zvonareva both battled through to the Semi-finals following straight set wins in the Quarter-finals. The quality of the two matches was severely affected by the swirling winds on the Arthur Ashe Stadium which made for extremely difficult playing conditions. Vera Zvonareva was the first to progress with a 6-3 7-5 victory over the Estonian, Kaia Kanepi who had already defeated Jelena Jankovic and Yanina Wickmayer. Both players struggled throughout the match producing numerous errors however it was Zvonareva who was by far the most consistent player keeping more balls in court and ultimately doing enough to win the match. Kanepi struggled more with the wind producing an astonishing 60 unforced errors. Zvonareva has made her second consecutive grand slam semi-final however it is has been a much easier route for her at the US with Kanepi being her highest ranked opponent. Zvonareva has done all that she has needed to reach this stage but has been far from impressive with the next round seing a large jump up in quality in her opponent.

That opponent will be Caroline Wozniacki, who beat Dominika Cibulkova 6-2 7-5. Once again blustery conditions affected the match but it was the number 1 seed who was more solid producing more first serves and producing less errors on the court as Cibulkova conceded her first three service games. Cibulkova improved during the second set keeping more balls in court and finding much better timing on her powerful groundstrokes however she could not force the tiebreak as Caroline sailed into her second consecutive US Open semi-final. Wozniacki will now face Zvonareva in the SF and i am predicting a similar result to their last meeting in Montreal with Wozniacki prevailing in straight sets as i feel she is playing with so much confidence right now and that she will just be too solid for Zvonareva.

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