Tara Moore produced a superb performance but fell just short when it mattered most against twice Grand Slam finalist, Vera Zvonareva, with the Russian recovering from a break down in the final set to take an epic contest. On the second day of play, the match having been stopped for bad light late last evening, Zvonareva called upon all of her experince to usurp the Brit.
At the beginning of the second day's play, despite fears that she may be have been put off by the delay, Tara Moore picked up right from where she left off, breaking the Russian in her first service game and racing into a 2-0 lead with the victory suddenly in sight. It seemed that all the momentum was now with the Brit, as she continue to build upon her great form from the previous night.
Yesterday after a topsy-turvy first set, Moore had battled back to take the game to Zvonareva, who suddenly began to struggle with her forehand looking vulnerable against the offensive baseline play of the sprightly Brit. And despite throwing away several chances, Moore finally managed to force a tiebreak, and amidst Zvonareva's pleas for an early stoppage, she secured the second set and plunged the match into a decider.
However, whilst it took a while to affect the Brit, the halt in play seemed to have seriously dampened Zvonareva's usually robust play, with the former world number two struggling to hit anything of note off of her erratic forehand and misplacing several open volleys, which caused the former doubles specialist to look on in disgust.
But, whilst it only remained one break, there always seemed plenty of opportunity for Zvonareva to fight her way back into the match; and when serving for the match at 3-5, Moore inexplicably produced her worst tennis, as she quickly gifted her opponent a 0-40 lead before giving up her chance on the third break point.
Yet, throughout the whole match, Moore underlined much of her inconsistency, at times looking like a solid top 50 player, and at others, seemingly overwelmed by the Russian - who reached the Wimbledon final in 2010. And she was at it again, producing some of her best tennis, making the lines and forcing Zvonareva into some uncomfortable positions, as she broke straight back to gain another opportunity at doing what she came so close to doing against eventual quarter finalst, Kaia Kanepi, twelve months ago.
But, with the crowd vocably behind her and noticably hounding the Russian, she failed to do so and yet again found herself back on serve and reminiscing about what might have been. From there on in, even the crowd could sense the air of ineviatabilty surrounding the Russian, who after some fine serving and returning, eventually broke Moore at the second time of asking to seal the victory.
It proved to be Zvonareva's first victory at a Grand Slam sonce 2012, when she defeated Alexandra Dulgheru at the Australian Open, before injury took its hold of the talented Russian. Through and producing small glimpses of the player she had formerly been, it proved to be a good day's work for Zvonareva.
Moore, on the other hand, was left to contemplate what might have been, as she crashed out of the tournament for the second year in a row having been so close to victory. 'Hopefully Bally would have been proud of me, I tried to fight as hard as she did' I have no doubts that she would have been.
Result
[WC] V Zvonareva d. [WC] T Moore 64 67 97