Nadia reached the Australian Open third round

Melbourne, January 18th, 2007
Russian fifth seed Nadia Petrova reached the Australian Open third round with an impressive 6-1 6-2 win over Argentina's Gisela Dulko on Wednesday.
Petrova, who had lost both their previous matches, overpowered her South American opponent from the back of the court, securing victory in 59 minutes on Vodafone Arena.

Nadia played a near perfect match yesterday against Gisela Dulko 6-1, 6-2. Nadia was fierce on serve, winning 72% if her first serves and 61% of her second serves. That’s a great stat for someone who relies heavily on her big serve to construct the point. Winners to errors, Nadia had 1 more error than winner (16-17), but Gisela only hit 3 winners, and 20 errors! Nadia had another great day at the net, winning all but 2 points at the net (winning all 7 net points in set 2). Nadia was 100% on break point conversions, and only was broken once, saving 6 break chances throughout the match. Nadia played some grand tennis and will be playing Serena Williams next.

Serena is always a threat, whatever her ranking, whatever her fitness and whatever her attire. Nonetheless, Nadia comes into this match as the clear favorite; Serena being ranked 81 and Nadia being ranked 6 (seeded 5). The two last played at the 2005 AO, Serena winning on the way to her 2nd AO title. However, Nadia is definately the fitter of the 2, and played 2 great matches to start off this Grand Slam. Nadia also won Hopman Cup earlier this year, so she is certainly not without match experience this year. I would predict Nadia to win in 2 tough sets, but I think Serena could win a set if Nadia loses focus.

Nadia, you’re so close to the last 16! Serve big, stay focused and keep the errors to a minimum and you’re there!!!

NEXT - NADIA - SERENA WILLIAMS