Matches:

1 Rd.: Zvonareva d. Shaughnessy 6-0 4-6 7-6

2 Rd.: Zvonareva d. Frazier 6-3 7-5

3 Rd.: Zvonareva lost to Henin-Hardenne 4-6 2-6

...Yes that was another quarterfinal exit by Vera. And yes, it shows that Vera is not ready to play very competitive matches against top players yet (I mean the top-ten players to whom Zvonareva seems to lose almost every time). But lets not look at the performance in Zurich from the dark side. Lets consider the fact that most other players rarely reach the quarters, while Swisscom was Zvonareva’s 11th quarterfinal of the season, 6 of which were in Tier 1 tournaments and a Grand Slam. In addition, this was Vera’s 3rd quarterfinal in four weeks she played.

Now if we look at the week in Switzerland more closely, we should see that it was not a bad one for Zvonareva. In the first round Vera had her vengeance on Shaughnessy, who bested her in the second round of the US Open. It took 3 sets to conquer the world no.20, but nevertheless it was a good performance, especially in the first set. Similarly, in the second round Zvonareva showed consistence in her game, when she defeated Amy Frazier 6-3 7-5. It was pleasant to watch Vera play without making all those unforced errors, contrasted to hundreds of mistakes made in the last few weeks.

No matter how well Vera played in the first two rounds, she did have an anti-climax in the quarterfinals. She lost in straight sets to Justine Henin-Hardenne, bad that wasn’t all that bad, considering the fact that Vera played against the eventual champion and the newly crowned world no.1. Justine is simply a better player and there’s nothing else to add.

Next up: Generali Ladies Linz

Maybe it wasn’t such a great idea to schedule play so many tournaments in a row, but nothing can change now. In Linz Zvonareva, as the no.3 seed, received a bye in the first round, while in the second round she will face either Bartoli or a qualifier, whom Vera would be expected to easily overcome. The real tests will start in the quarterfinal, as Zvonareva is likely to play against Anna Pistolesi of Israel. No matter what, but Vera will probably get away with a 3 set win. In the semifinal things would get even harder, as Ai Sagiyama (no.2 seed) might come on the way. The Japanese player did not do quite as well as Vera lately, so she is not the favourite to advance to the finals. Vera is. Hard to say what will happen there, but Zvonareva vs. Myskina match-up is not completely crossed out. Maybe it would not happen now, but I’m looking forward for a second all-Russian final in history.

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