NEW YORK, NY, USA - Vera Zvonareva reached her second straight Grand Slam semifinal on Wednesday, beating giant-killer Kaia Kanepi in straight sets in the quarterfinals of the US Open on a windy Wednesday afternoon.
Zvonareva, the No.7 seed, and Kanepi, the No.31 seed, were both playing in their first quarterfinals at the year's final major, and under extremely swirly conditions shot precision was not easy, but Zvonareva was the steadier of the two and beat the Estonian trailblazer in the pair's first meeting, 63 75.
Zvonareva's numbers weren't pretty, 10 winners to 28 unforced errors; Kanepi's were further from pretty, 18 winners being totally outweighed by 60 errors.
"The weather definitely wasn't good for the tennis, but we were both trying our best out there," Zvonareva said. "The most important thing was to find the right balance between being patient and aggressive. I think I did that well today."
Having never even reached the quarters at the Open before, Zvonareva has now produced her best ever result in Flushing Meadows and has now been to the semis of three of the four majors, the only exception being the French Open.
"I guess I'm improving," Zvonareva added. "I've been playing for a while, but I'm still out there and working hard. It feels great. I will try to work even more."
Vera is giving some of her prize money to Rett Syndrome... read more.
Kanepi was the first Estonian ever to reach a Grand Slam quarterfinal at the 2008 French Open and is now 0-3 lifetime in major quarterfinals, also falling at this stage at Wimbledon this year and now here. She upset No.4 seed Jelena Jankovic to get this far and seems headed for a Top 20 return soon.
"The wind was blowing in every way. When I played Jelena it was the same thing so I was used to it, but today was tough. I just didn't find my rhythm," Kanepi said after the match. "Overall I'm very happy though. I had quite a stable tournament. I wasn't so up and down in my matches, so I'm happy."
