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Vera Zvonareva will play her first Grand Slam final on Saturday against Wimbledon’s defending champion Serena Williams.
Vera is notorious for getting tight in key moment, having multiple on-court meltdowns over the years. Zvonareva battled back from a 1 set deficit against Pironkova, then fighting her own nerves from 4-1 in the third set to close out the match.
The Russian has been working with coach, hitting partner, former player and sometime model Sergey Demekhine for the past 8 months and he was in her box supporting her.
In her post match interview Vera revealed that she is backing up her physical education degree with one in international economic relations.
It will be interesting to see how Vera handles the stress of a Grand Slam final, however, for the time being the Russian who spent some time training in Spain is excited about the prospect. “I’m very excited. I think I’m not realising it at this moment. She’s only young, but a very, very tough opponent and she started so well. I’m happy I was able to hang in there and turn it around. It’s one of my dreams to be out there.”
Serena, who is also studying (nail school), also struggled in her semi final, lacking the intensity that we know her for. Serena also lacked her normal intensity in her doubles match with Venus, making mistakes that the duo would not normally make. “It definitely wasn’t easy. I had to work really hard. I definitely didn’t expect to go this far the way I started the tournament. I just felt off and I’m definitely blessed to be still in the tournament.”
Even if Serena continues to be ‘off’ it’s still hard to look past her to reclaim the title. If Vera manages to control her nerves she should be able to claim a set, but even if she’s ahead in the match it’s hard to see her serving out the match. Still, it would be nice to see someone else win for a change.
My pick is Serena in three sets for back to back titles.
