Alisa Kleybanova plays Michaella Krajicek in the second round of the BMW Malaysian Open.
Kleybanova enjoyed the best week of her 2010 season in Kuala Lumpur as she came through a strong field to take the title, stunning Olympic champion Elena Dementieva in straight sets in the final. The Russian seems to perform her best in the Far East and she also picked up a title in Seoul on a similar surface later in the year.
With more consistency, Kleybanova could easily establish herself in the top twenty as her powerful, athletic game makes her a big threat to anyone on hard courts. She stunned Vera Zvonareva and the world's top teenager Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in Dubai a couple of weeks ago.
The draw this week has been quite kind to the defending champion as she is definitely in the easier half of the draw especially now Francesca Schiavone is out.
Kleybanova made a dominant start to the week, thrashing China's Lu Jing-Jing 6-1, 6-1 but she now has a much tougher test against Krajicek who was once one of the biggest servers on the women's tour. The Dutch girl has since struggled with injuries and form but she could prove a bit of a handful.
