2024-02-01 20:59:55
Defending champion Anastasia Potapova made it into the quarterfinals with a lot of effort at the WTA500 tennis tournament in Linz on Thursday. The Russian, seeded number five, defeated the Italian Elisabetta Cocciaretto 2:6,7:6(9),7:5 in a round of 16 thriller. Also in the round of the last eight is Donna Vekic, the Croatian defeated Australian Open semi-finalist Dajana Jastremska 6:1,6:1. The Belgian Elise Mertens and Clara Burel from France are also there.
Potapowa got off to a bad start once morest the world number 60 in the $922,573 “Upper Austria Ladies” and gave up her serve twice in the first set. Cocciaretto, on the other hand, served well and quickly won the first round. In the second set, the Italian immediately managed a break once more, while the Russian became increasingly emotional and repeatedly struggled with close balls. Finally Potapova managed the rebreak to make it 4:4. In the tiebreak she fended off two match points and won it 11:9.
The decision set also remained narrow. The favorite took her opponent’s serve in the ninth game to make it 5:4 and then missed three match points. This took revenge immediately, Cocciaretto equalized. But Potapova countered and scored her fourth match point following almost three hours. “It was an incredible match, I have a lot of respect for Elisabetta. I’m really happy to be through and that I had my emotions under control in the end to win,” explained Potapova, who now faces her compatriot Yekaterina Alexandrova , number two in the tournament, continues.
At the start of the day, Mertens, seeded number four, made it into the quarter-finals at the Linz Design Center. The world number 26. had little trouble once morest Lucia Bronzetti from Italy and won 6:1,6:3 following just 78 minutes. There were more problems for Burel once morest the Czech Katerina Siniakova, the Frenchwoman used her first match point following almost two and a half hours to win 6:3.5:7.6:4.
Meanwhile, Jastremska was unable to continue her successful run in Melbourne in Linz. The Ukrainian was in a losing battle once morest Vekic; the 23-year-old only managed to get her service through twice. Her Croatian opponent held her own serve and was able to celebrate following just 66 minutes. Vekic now faces Burel, Mertens meets the Russian Anastasia Pavlyutschenkowa.
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