INDIAN WELLS, California—One month after becoming the talk of the Middle East desert, Israel’s Shahar Peer is again in the middle of the hot spotlight.
But this time in another desert on the other side of the world, Peer’s tennis is doing the talking.
Peer and her doubles partner Gisela Dulko have reached the women’s doubles championship match at the 2009 BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, California. In front of a sparse stadium crowd on Friday, the pair defeated Spain’s Nuria Llagostera Vives and Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez 6-3, 6-3. Peer and Dulko will face singles finalist Vera Zvonareva and Victoria Azarenka in Saturday’s final.
For Peer, her success in doubles is a welcome relief after a tumultuous month on the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour. Unwittingly thrust into the spotlight during an international political incident with Dubai, Peer wants nothing more than to put it all behind her. To help make amends for the injustices she suffered, the Tour has awarded Peer ranking points, prize money and given her its best assurances that this situation will never happen again.
Peer’s singles competition ended prematurely, but not before she dispatched two seeded players. She defeated No. 10 Marion Bartoli, followed by No. 19 Anna Chakvetadze, only to succumb to an on-fire Victoria Azarenka, who was seeded eighth, in the fourth round.
In the doubles, Peer has found her footing in the desert. The pair will appear in their first final together tomorrow and are confident that they can go one match further.
“We really like playing with each other,” Peer said on Friday. “It feels great. We have one match to go, and we’re really look forward for that.”
Argentina’s Dulko has played with several partners during her career, winning seven titles with Flavia Pennetta, Maria Elena Camerin, and Maria Kirilenko among others. Peer has won three—one each with Bartoli, Anna-Lena Groenefeld and most notably, her Muslim friend Sania Mirza.
Both Peer and Dulko have similar games, a fact that Peer was quick to point out today.
“I think we’re pretty similar, I would say, because we’re both good singles players and we’re pretty aggressive. We don’t have a huge serve, but we can make a lot of first serves,” Peer said. “She [Dulko] is doing pretty good at the net. She is really aggressive and she really sees the balls better.”
Dulko is equally complimentary of her partner. “I think I would say pretty much the same. I think Shahar is a great fighter,” Dulko said. “She always covers me in the forward position.”
Victoria Azarenka and Vera Zvonareva play doubles just as they play singles—relentlessly and powerfully from the baseline. When asked about their game plan for Saturday, they agree that it is best to focus on their own skills.
“We just have to keep on playing our game,” Peer said. “Be aggressive, do what we need to do. And with the deuce and super tiebreak everything is rapid and can go very fast.”
They are assured a tough match, but Peer is just happy that the firestorm over her visa controversy has subsided. “I really hope it’s behind me and I can play tennis,” Peer added.
Playing tennis is what she does best, and for the first time in weeks, her tennis will be allowed to do the talking.
On the Baseline’s live coverage of the 2009 BNP Paribas Open is brought to you by Grand Slam Tennis Tours.
Shahar seems to be coming back into form. Once she upped her first serve percentage in the second and third set, it was curtains for Marion :( But all the best to Shahar.