Last update - 00:00 21/01/2007
Straight-sets win sends Shahar Peer to Australian Open quarterfinals
By Haaretz Service and News Agencies
Tennis player Shahar Peer early Sunday won her ticket to the Australian Open quarter finals after beating in two straight sets the world's 4th-ranked Svetlana Kuznetsova 6:4, 6:2.
The victory is Peer's greatest achievement in grand slam tournaments to date, as she entered the 4th round in last year's U.S. Open and Rolland Garros (French Open) grand slams. Peer will be seeded 8th in the tournament, an achievement matched by only one Israeli tennis player more than 25 years ago.
The opening of the first set did not bode well for Peer, as she lost the game of her first serve. After securing a 1:1 against Kuznetsova, the Russian managed to lead 3:1. But Peer did not waver, improved her serve and with staunch determination tied again 4:4 to win the set 6:4.
Kuznetsova showed signs of nervousness at the opening of the second set allowing Peer to win the first three games with hardly any resistance.
The Russian won the next game, bringing the score to 3:1 but Peer pressed on and advanced to 4:1. Kuznetsova fought back and won the next game, but in the seventh game rain began to fall with the score at 40:40.
The intermission did not, however, take away Peer's drive as she hammered the last two games to win 6:2 and secure the best achievement in her career to date.
Peer's triumph - the first time she has beaten a player in the world top five - is likely to earn her a world ranking higher than 15th place, which would make her the highest ranked Israeli ever.
Her advancement to the quarter finals equals Amos Mansdorf's progress in the quarter finals of the Open.
"I feel like I'm on a soccer field," Peer said of the noisy crowd support in the win over Kuznetsova. "It will be the first time for me to get to a quarterfinal in a Grand Slam, so I had nothing to lose."
Peer will play the former world no. 1 player and twice Australian Open champion Serena Williams, who beat Serb Jelena Jakovic in two straight sets in the 4th round.
"It doesn't matter if she's playing Williams or Jankovic, two players of the first rank, it will be a tough match, but I believe in Shahar, that she could beat either one of them," her coach, Oded Teich, told Israel Radio on Sunday.
If she plays "as she played today, with the confidence in which she rose to the game, truly believing that she could truly defeat any opponent, everything is open," Teich said. "I believe that Shahar could beat any opponent today."