This was a close match that ended, fittingly, in a tiebreak—one that was high-quality, even fabulous. Vera Zvonareva won that 11-9 to take the match 6-3, 7-6.
It was the first time Zvonareva and Lucie Safarova faced off, a surprise as both turned pro more than eight years ago. Zvonareva is ranked as high as she’s ever been and has a chance to leave here as No. 1. Safarova's career-high ranking is No. 22, attained a few years back. In a year when only one American reached the third round of the women’s singles, Zvonareva is one of seven Russians remaining; Safarova is one of four Czechs left. Like two of the other Czechs, Safarova is left-handed.
In the end, that inherent advantage didn’t help Safarova today. Her serve was undoubtedly an issue: She hit nine double faults (and no aces), two of them back-to-back to get broken for the first time in the second set. Safarova hit some great winners, as she often does, but also made quite a few errors. The ratio wasn’t nearly good enough (29 winners to 38 errors), as Zvonareva defended well.
Zvonareva also defended too much, particularly in the second set. Unlike in the first set, she didn’t hit her shots sufficiently hard or deep. But the performance was good enough; she struck 25 winners to 24 errors and won 91 percent of her net approaches. In her next match, she’d do well to approach the net more than 11 times and hope for another pretty percentage.
Zvonareva was twice unable to serve out the match, which made for good theater. We got a terrific tiebreaker in which both women played well throughout. Safarova couldn't covert two set points, while Zvonareva failed to convert her first two match points. On her third, she hit a lovely defensive lob that looked to land on the line.
The match was over, but only after 119 minutes, about twice as long as Zvonareva's first match and still longer than her second, a three-setter against Bojana Jovanovski.
Perhaps most in-form was Martina Navratilova. So what if she was commentating and not actually playing? She provided insightful analysis, as she usually does. Players should opt for depth over power. Returners should "cheat" on the return by moving over, not leaning to one side. Zvonareva’s strength is "great shot selection." Safarova’s shots are "a thing of beauty—when they’re going in." But none of that was as good as the…other stuff.
Consider this quip as the camera lingered over Safarova’s boyfriend, Wimbledon runner-up Tomas Berdych, in the players’ box: “If a guy’s watching a girl, they’re dating.”
Then there was this, as the camera panned to Berdych while he casually rested his head on his arm: “There’s Tomas Berdych trying not to use too much energy. He’s very…phlegmatic.”
And as Zvonareva started talking to herself in the middle of the second set, Navratilova wondered aloud: “Vera talks to herself a lot. I wonder if she answers to herself.”
Zvonareva will now face either No. 16 seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova or Iveta Benesova in the fourth round. Hopefully Navratilova will be around for that one too.
—Bobby Chintapalli