Pavlyuchenkova battles back in dominant fashion to defeat Kerber

Former Australian Open champion Angelique Kerber has been having a solid Australian Open so far. She defeated Camila Giorgi in the previous round with ease. That set up a match against Pavlyuchenkova who can be a tricky opponent.

It certainly looked that way at the beginning of the match as the Russian jumped out to an early lead. She maintained it throughout the set and even added on another break. She serving while being up two breaks 5-3 but failed to convey the game. Kerber continued her good play and broke her opponent one more time to take a 6-5 lead. The Russian composed herself and forced a tiebreak.

Unfortunately for her, it was the German who would take this one 7-5 despite being behind 2-4 early in it. It was truly a set of missed opportunities for the Russian who was visibly disappointed after the conclusion of set number one.

The 2nd set started off slowly as both players traded points but neither managed to breakthrough. It was in part due to a very high level of play on their own service games. Both players were winning those points at an 80 % or higher rate. Such a trend continued for a couple of more games until we reached 6-6 on the scoreboard.

The winner needed to be decided in the tiebreak just like in the 1st set. Unlike the first set though, it was the Russian who was better this time learning from her mistakes in the 1st set. The end result was 7-4 and we were headed for a 3rd set.

In it, it was the Russian who played well. She jumped out to an early 4-0 lead breaking her opponent twice. She looked more comfortable than the German who racked up mistake after mistake. Kerber stringed two good games together to reduce the deficit to 4-2 but failed to build upon that surrendering her serve once more. At 5-2 Pavlyuchenkova served for the match and managed to bring it home.

Overall a very good performance by the Russian who could have won in straight sets had she been focused a bit more in the 1st set but nonetheless she battled back and deservedly won.

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