French Open defending champion Svetlana Kuznetsova barely escaped a skilled, but nervous, Andrea Petkovic in the second round. Today, countrywoman Maria Kirilenko was just too good for 6th seed Kuznetsova, and defeated her 6-3, 2-6, 6-4.
It was an entertaining, and sometimes exciting, match. Kirilenko, the 30th seed, got off to a great start, but then lost five games in a row, went down 0-2 in the third set, and was a point away from going down 0-3. She turned it around, though, breaking Kuznetsova to get to a 5-3 lead, but then getting broken when she served for the match. Kuznetsova then saved a match point on her serve, and even had two break points against Kirelenko at 4-5. Kirilenko saved those break points in style (including a serve-and-volley), and was able to get the job done on her third match point.
An aggressive Alexandra Dulgheru looked very good against 3rd seed Caroline Wozniacki, and led her in both sets, but wasn't able to play some of the bigger points successfully. Dulgheru, the Warsaw champion, hit 29 winners to Wozniacki's 14, but--in what is now typical fashion--Wozniacki emerged the winner, 6-3, 6-4.
5th seed Elena Dementieva, obviously injured, had all she could handle in Aleksandra Wozniak, but won their match 6-7, 6-3, 6-4. It's nice to see Wozniak on the court as a real competitor again.
Given the surface, it's not suprising that 11th seed Li Na went out to 17th seed Francesca Schiavone. Schiavone's 6-4, 6-2 victory put the two remaining Italians into the round of 16. Earlier in the day, 14th seed Flavia Pennetta defeated Palona Hercog 6-3, 6-0.
Li's countrwoman, Zheng Jie, is also out, defeated in straight sets by Anastasia Pivovarova. 7th seed Sam Stosur defeated Rossana De Los Rios 4-6, 6-1, 6-0, and the other seeds--Justine Henin, Serena Williams, Venus Williams, Marion Bartoli, Maria Sharapova, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, and Yanina Wickmayer all won their matches. Also winning was Chanelle Scheepers, who defeated Akgul Amanmuradova.
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