Player of the week: Vera Zvonareva

Russian Vera Zvonareva has been one of the most regular and consistent WTA players in the last year. And she took advance of her consistency to get the most important victory of her career in the WTA Premier event of Indian Wells.


Zvonareva enjoyed a perfect week, winning all her matches without dropping a set and dropping no more than 8 games on each. She started with easy victories over Yung-Jan Chan (6/2 6/2) and Petra Kvitova (6/3 6/1) before facing her first serious test in the 4th round, former Top-20 Na Li (6/4 6/4). In the quarter-finals and in the semis, Zvonareva had to face two young upcoming players, WTA #12 Caroline Wozniacki and WTA #11 Victoria Azarenka, and she used her experience to overcome them by 6/4 6/2 and 6/3 6/3 respectively. But the final was a major challenge, as she had to face former WTA #1 and title holder Ana Ivanovic. The strong wind complicated the game for both players, but in these conditions Zvonareva was able to keep the unforced errors under control while a more offensive Ivanovic got desperate in the 2nd set to lose by 7/6 6/2.


With this victory Zvonareva climbs up to #5 in the WTA ranking and presents herself as a serious contender for higher goals, such as Grand Slam titles or WTA #1.