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News | WTA Tennis English

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

CHARLESTON, SC, USA – 19-year-old Jelena Ostapenko stunned No.11 seed Mirjana Lucic-Baroni in three sets to reach the final at the Volvo Car Open, 6-3, 5-7, 6-4.

With the victory Ostapenko is through to her third career final – and her first on clay – where he’ll face fellow-19-year-old Daria Kasatkina.

“It’s really nice to be in the third final, but first final on clay court, and especially here in Charleston,” Ostapenko told press after the match. “I’m really looking forward for tomorrow’s match.

[Daria] kind of defensive player, and I think clay is her favorite surface, but I’m just going to try to stay consistent and be aggressive at the same time and just play my game.”

Just one point made the difference between Ostapenko and Lucic-Baroni during the tense, two-hour-and-seven-minute encounter. The Latvian employed her aggressive, fearless tennis against Lucic-Baroni, changing the direction in the ball and keeping her opponent on the run with her heavy groundstrokes.

Ostapenko was serving for the match at 5-4 in the second, but Lucic-Baroni had other ideas and the Croat put together a mammoth struggle to deny Ostapenko and break her serve.

She unleashed a barrage of winners against the Latvian, who had no response as Lucic-Baroni grabbed the next two games to take the match into a decider. But Ostapenko tamped down her nerves in the third and found her calm to make her way into her first final of 2017.

“I actually was quite emotional in the second set when I was 5-3 up and I couldn’t finish the set, but she liked when I was emotional,” Ostapenko admitted. “It kind of gave her confidence till then.

“In the third set I was just trying to be calm because I think it was tougher for her because I didn’t show any emotions, and it helped me, so I won the third set.”

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News | WTA Tennis English

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

BIEL/BIENNE, Switzerland – Marketa Vondrousova’s fairytale week continued at the Ladies Open Biel Bienne; the qualifier roared back from a first set deficit to surprise countrywoman and top seed Barbora Strycova, 7-6(3), 6-2 and book her first WTA final appearance alongside Estonian youngster Anett Kontaveit. Kontaveit triumphed in a 6-4, 4-6, 7-5 thriller against Aliaksandra Sasnovich earlier in the day.

A week after teenagers Daria Kasatkina and Jelena Ostapenko fought for the Volvo Car Open title, the WTA field continued to serve youth in Biel/Bienne, with 23 as the average age of the semifinalists – and that’s including 31-year-old Strycova.

Vondrousova, who reached two Slam semifinals and won two major doubles titles as a junior, was playing her first tour-level semifinal, and that experience showed early as the World No.18 raced out to a 5-2 lead, later holding a set point in the 12th game of the opener.

The teenager gamely saved it behind a booming lefty serve and saved her best tennis for the ensuing tie-break, striking a screaming winner to clinch it.

Strycova struggled to counter her fellow Czech’s aggressive game on the indoor hardcourts as Vondrousova took a 5-2 lead of her own in the second, breaking serve for the fourth and final time to advance into the biggest final of her career.

In all, the qualifier played a clean match, striking 22 winners to 13 unforced errors; Strycova’s own 13 winners were undone by 20 unforced errors.

Awaiting Vondrousova in the final is another former junior prodigy in Kontaveit, who reached the US Open girl’s singles final back in 2012 and outlasted Sasnovich to start Semifinal Saturday.

“I feel really good, and really happy to be in my first final,” she said after the match.

Back in the Top 100 after reaching the third round of the Miami Open, the unseeded Estonian battled through a high-quality encounter with Sasnovich, who was playing her first WTA semifinal since 2015.

“I was down a break twice in the third set, but I tried to stay in there even though she was playing really well. I was just trying to stay with her do what I always do: fight and not give up.

“Mentally, I toughed it out.”

Hitting 26 winners to the Belarusian’s 29, Kontaveit’s consistency won the day, hitting 17 unforced errors against Sasnovich’s 29, and won four more points (114 to 110) by match’s end, converting her WTA final on her fourth match point after two hours and 24 minutes on court.

It will be Kontaveit’s first meeting with Vondrousova, and knows to expect another tough match if she hopes to hoist her first WTA trophy.

“She’s had really good wins, and it looks like she’s playing well this week.”

More to come…

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