• WTA Tour

Faulty Pavlyuchenkova falls in Baku Cup

ESPN staff
July 22, 2011
Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova served 27 double faults © Getty Images
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The second seed at the Baku Cup, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, crashed out of the tournament on Friday, losing in three sets to Galina Voskoboeva.

Pavlyuchenkova, the world No. 13, was targeting her fourth WTA Tour title in Azerbaijan, but she collapsed at the quarter-final stage. Having taken the first set on a tiebreak, she eventually lost 6-7(5) 6-4 6-3 in two-and-a-half hours.

Unbelievably, the Russian served 27 double faults as she effectively handed her opponent an entire set's worth of free points. Unsurprisingly, Voskoboeva found herself with 12 break chances throughout the contest, converting nine.

Top seed Vera Zvonareva remains favourite to win the event after she saw off the tough challenge of Anna Tatishvili to advance to the semi-finals. The world No. 3 did drop her first set in three matches, but she nevertheless did enough to keep hopes alive of a 12th career title.

Zvonareva needed three breaks of serve to get the job done in the first set, and then she had to deal with the frustration of dropping the second on a tiebreaker. However, the Russian's class when returning was evident throughout, and she broke three times in the decider to complete a 7-5 6-7(4) 6-2 victory to advance to the last four.

Elsewhere on Friday, seventh seed Ksenia Pervak crushed Aravane Rezai 6-1 6-2 in 69 minutes. And Mariya Koryttseva completes the semi-final line-up after she beat Kateryna Bonadarenko 7-5 6-4.

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.
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