By Mike McIntyre
Wow - who saw that one coming?
Kim Clijsters was demolished on Friday in Melbourne 6-0, 6-1 by 19th seeded Nadia Petrova. It was her first career loss to Petrova in five meetings. This was their first encounter since Clijsters emerged from retirement last summer and a result that nobody would have seen coming.
Clijsters has been on fire since coming back in July 2009, winning her first Grand Slam tournament at the U.S. Open and starting 2010 off on a winning note in Brisbane with a win over Justine Henin in the finals. All signs pointed to another strong showing here at the Australian Open where she was considered one of the favorites.
But it was Petrova who was in control from start to finish on Friday, finishing with 15 winners to a mere 10 unforced errors. She would only allow Clijsters a total of five points during the entire first set.
Clijsters was clearly not on her game as she had only 5 winners the entire match while committing 26 unforced errors. After the match, the Belgian praised Petrova's play, but admitted that she was largely responsible for the outcome.
"I was completely off. Just, you know, I think tennis‑wise, I didn't feel the ball at all. You know, on the other hand, you know, she was good. But, you know, I let her ‑‑ you know, I made all the mistakes and she didn't really have to do much. She served really well and was aggressive in the rallies, but that's because I let her play into the courts. Just because I wasn't feeling the ball well. It sucks."
Petrova is a player I have always been impressed with - in practice. Physically she seems infinitely stronger than most of the women on tour and her serve is really something else. You would think that would translate into more success on the court. Yet every time I've seen her play a match against the top players, it seems she is completely out of her league.
That being said, Petrova does have a history of solid results at the Slams. This is her third round-of-sixteen result at Australia in a row, and she made the quarter-finals in 2006. She has made the semi-finals at the French Open twice before, the quarters at Wimbledon twice, and the quarters of the U.S. Open two times as well.
Petrova now faces Svetlana Kuznetsova in an all-Russian fourth round match. The winner of that will face either Belgian Justine Henin or Yanina Wickmayer in the quarter-finals.
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