Anastasia deserved to win in the second round to get through, as Tsvetana Pironkova played worse than at Wimbledon. Rodionova played a solid game with good serving and amazing return, and she didn’t face too many problems against the Bulgarian player.
But Anastasia played a grinding match with no aggressive tennis and it will be hard for her to succeed in the quarter finals. She made lots of mistakes when being pushed to produce three or more hits at a time and this is main weakness.
Anastasia has reached the 3rd round of three of the last four Grand Slams, beating Lisicki at US Open, Zvonareva at Roland Garros and Kuznetsova at Wimbledon and now she is facing the worst opponent possible, Russian Elena Vesnina, who won each of their three previous head to head meetings all of them on hard courts. Anastasia has not been able to win even one set against Vesnina and only once did she manage to win more than 3 games in one set.
Vesnina played a great match against Voegele in the second round putting her opponent’s serve under great pressure. Elena has found some form and I fully expect her to get past Rodionova.
Verdict: Vesnina to win.