Zvonareva crushes Peng to win Guangzhou Open

World number nine Vera Zvonareva came from a set down to deny Peng Shuai her first WTA title Sunday, crushing the Chinese star 6-7 (4/7), 6-0, 6-2 to claim the Guangzhou Open.

It was the Russian’s seventh career title and second of the year, after winning at Prague in May.

The top seed held a 3-0 head-to-head record over fourth seed Peng going into the match and it looked like her winning run could be grinding to a halt when she lost the first set.

But Peng self-destructed, losing 11 games in a row to throw away her chance of becoming only the third Chinese player after Li Na and Zheng Jie to win a WTA title.

The victory capped a remarkable month for Zvonareva, who won singles bronze at the Olympics in August and followed it up by helping Russia claim the Fed Cup title.

Peng took an early break to go 2-1 up in the first set then broke again in the fifth game for a 4-1 lead.

But Zvonareva hauled herself back into the match by breaking in the next game and held serve for 4-3.

It went to serve till Peng lost her nerve when she was serving for the set at 5-4, with the Russian pouncing on a series of errors to make it 5-5. The set went to a tiebreak and Peng, cheered on by a patriotic home crowd, knuckled down to win it 7-4 in 72 minutes.

But Zvonareva was not ready to roll over and pulled off some remarkable shots to race through the second set 6-0, leaving a stunned Peng pondering how to halt her slide.

GUANGZHOU, China, Sunday, AFP