“Ukrainian Kalinina Clinches Victory in Rome Semifinals”

2023-05-19 17:20:19

Kalinina, 26, whose best performance is a lost final in Budapest in 2021, will meet Kazakhstan’s Elena Rybakina (world No.6) or Latvian Jelena Ostapenko (20th) on Saturday, opposed in the other semi-final, to try to succeed on the Roman record to Iga Swiatek, who gave up on injury in the quarters.

The Ukrainian hoped with this victory to bring “positive emotions” to her compatriots, at the end of a particular match in view of the war in her country.

Kudermetova, already an ill-fated semi-finalist in Madrid two weeks ago, relied on her punching power to try and run the Ukrainian a lot, coming out of a 3:41 marathon match in the quarter-finals.

But Kalinina showed no weakness, apart from a slump at the end of the second set, to reply, with less force but much more accuracy and variety in her shots.

The Ukrainian fought at the start of the match to save her face-offs, saving three break points once morest her at 1-2 then five more at 2-3 to finally keep her service games. What puzzled the Russian who then lost confidence and dropped his own service in stride to be trailed 5-3.

Kudermetova found the resources to come back at 5-5 but gave up her serve once more due to some gross faults and let the first set slip away.

Faced with this Ukrainian sure of her game, the Russian got even more annoyed at the start of the second set, clenching her fists in rage or hitting the ground with her racket. And as in the first, she gave up her serve first in the fifth game (2-3) but still managed to come back at 5-5.

This time she took advantage of a slack from her opponent to return to one set everywhere, concluding the set thanks to four shutouts.

After a break in the locker room to regain her composure, Kalinina stopped the bleeding at the start of the third set and took over the management of operations from the start of the third set with two breaks that allowed her to lead 4-0. While the rain was back on the Foro Italico, it did not falter and finished in 2h50.

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