Chakvetadze Win Creates All-Russian US Open Semifinal

"It was a fight to the end and I try to play smart,” Chakvetadze said after the match.

Anna Chakvetadze defeats Shahar Peer in the Women's Singles Quarterfinals. Photo courtesy: Jonathan Fickies/usopen.org

NEW YORK - In an emotionally draining quarterfinal between two 20-year-old fighters who had never reached a Slam semifinal, it was perhaps fitting that their quarterfinal battle was decided with a challenge on match point.

Shahar Peer lost the challenge, and the match, to Anna Chakvetadze, 6-4, 6-1, to create an all-Russian semifinal with 2004 US Open champion, Svetlana Kuznetsova.

"It was a fight to the end and I try to play smart,” Chakvetadze said after the match.

In the first set, Chakvetadze was having a hard time landing her first serves in the wind (49 percent of them made it in).

Meanwhile, Peer was having a hard time converting break points in front of a vocal crowd that was overwhelmingly on her side.

At 2-all in the first set, Peer went up a break in the fifth game.

Chakvetadze, rallied back to tie it at 4-all by converting her third break point in the eighth game. The critical ninth game epitomized the battle.

Peer failed to convert two break points, and Chakvetadze had three advantages before she held serve to take a 5-4 lead.

Next, Chakvetadze broke Peer in the 10th game to claim the set.

In the second set, Chakvetadze was broken in the opening game, but won the next six games to capture the set, 6-1, and the match.

“I'm kind of happy of the way I was playing,” Peer said of her run to the quarterfinals, “but not happy that I lost today."

"The crowd was unbelievable,"Peer added. "I had so much support here and I really, really enjoyed it.”

One of the spectators was the actor Gene Wilder, who played Willy Wonka in the 1971 film, “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” and appeared on the big screen while the deejay played “Candyman” during a second-set changeover.

Story by: Aimee Berg

Courtesy: usopen.org

Good luck J Henin you are the best

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