Zvonareva Halts Raymond's Run
February 22, 2004
MEMPHIS, Tennessee, USA - No.1 seed Vera Zvonareva (pictured right,
with Tournament Director Mac Winker) won her second career singles
title defeating two-time defending champion and No.2 seed Lisa Raymond
at the Kroger St. Jude and Cellular South Cup 46 64 75.
After an even first and second set with each player winning one set
a piece at 64, Raymond took a convincing lead in the third set at 5-2.
Zvonareva refused to give up the match and won the next five consecutive
games, denying Raymond of her third consecutive title in Memphis.
Zvonareva saved a total of three championship match points en route
to her first Tour title since winning Bol in 2003. The top seed saved
two match points down 5-2 and proceeded to hold serve the remainder
of the match. She then saved her third match point at 5-4 and continued
to break Raymond's serve at 6-5 to win the championship.
"When I was down 5-2, I just didn’t give up and kept playing my
game and going for my shots," Zvonareva stated. "I just kept thinking
that it was my last chance, that if I missed the ball, then that was
the match. I kept fighting for every shot. This is definitely a great
win for me because I came back from being down."
Following the victory, Zvonareva said, "Obviously, I’m very excited
to win this, especially because I saved three match points. Lisa is
an extremely tough opponent and I was expecting a difficult match,
especially because we had a tight match in Philadelphia last year.
She played very well, so I'm happy that I could find my game and was
able to pull it out."
Zvonareva broke Raymond's 11 match-win streak in Memphis and intercepted
Raymond's quest for a "hat trick" in Memphis, winning three titles in a
row.
"We both fought hard and left it all out there," said Raymond. "There
wasn't a game in which we didn't put 150% into it. She made a conscious
effot to take a lot of pace off the ball. She kept floating balls to
my backhand without any pace and she handled my slice a lot better
than the last time I played her in Philadelphia. I give full credit
to her. She played well when she had to and moved unbelievably well."
After a two and a half hour singles match, Zvonareva was back on court
thirty minutes later for the doubles final, teaming with Russian
counterpart Maria Sharapova.
The Russian duo fell to No.2 seeds Asa Svensson and Meilen Tu 64 76(0).
Svensson and Tu were playing together for only their second time as
Svensson increases her Tour doubles titles to seven and Tu to four.
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