Andrea Petkovic took a good step in the right direction at the Citi Open Thursday. In what was a tough up and down battle with Eugenie Bouchard ended in a shutout in the final set that gave the German a 6-2, 4-6, 6-0 win on Grandstand court William H.G. Fitzgerald Tennis Center. It was the first time this season that Petkovic had advanced to a quarterfinal giving her a boost of confidence from the win.
Both players hadn’t faced one another in two years giving the Canadian an opportunity to turn their personal series around. She only found a way to defeat her German opponent once making their second round match up a challenge. Bouchard came out blazing in her defeat of Christina McHale winning in straight sets with a bagel to finish off the first round. With her offense having a good start, the 23 year old hoped to put together a pattern of consistency.
She and Petkovic both had a good start to their opening service games, but as the German took the next step, she made her stance clear to the Canadian. The fourth was her moment to defend tough against Bouchard’s serve and win the break point. The two made it the longest game of the set lasting several breaks with the 29 year old coming out of the dust victorious. She consolidated her efforts with a second straight win that saw Bouchard call for help. Coach Tomas Högstedt came out to speak with Bouchard in order to help turn the tide quickly. She put together a strong service hold on Petkovic but there was still plenty of ground to cover.
Petkovic made that task difficult for the Canadian as she delivered a response in the seventh formulating an offense that Bouchard couldn’t deal with. She found herself on the edge handing the German two set points finishing with a forehand error to conclude 34 minutes. Petkovic delivered a solid run with her first serve near 75 percent. The second serve from the German took its toll on Bouchard who struggled on the returns.
The second set began with Petkovic making the steps forward to dictate but the Canadian wasn’t having any upsets take place. She rallied back to overtake the German and lead heavily on the score. Petkovic rallied back to attempt a dead lock in the tenth to play the set deeper but the 23 year old managed to hold on to three set points and win her way to playing a decider. By the end of it, the tables and turned for the two with Petkovic suffering on the second serve where she landed just 3 of 15 and was dismal on both sides of her return game. With life back in the hands of the Canadian, the third was up for anyone to take in hand.
The German was under pressure at the start with Bouchard getting a grip on the break with unforced errors playing their role. Petkovic struck back to force deuce where after three breaks she got the win to her name. It was only the start of something bigger for Petkovic who seemed to have Bouchard beaten through the next three decisions.
Both maintained first serve shots, but the leverage was in the hands of the 29 year old who blasted shots across making them count overall. She had Bouchard facing a bagel in the sixth having yet found ways of defeating Petkovic. The unforced errors were overwhelming the 23 year old who couldn’t do much to adjust quickly and fell after 1 hour and 41 minutes.
The 29-year-old took her two game streak in hand and prepared for an interesting day of action Friday facing the winner between Bianca Andreescu of Romania and second seeded Kristina Mladenovic of France.
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