Jelena Ostapenko fought hard in her third-round bout but came out a winner at the Miami Open Sunday. The Latvian eased to start before having to earn the straight sets win over
The two met late last season in Seoul where the 20-year-old took down the Brazilian in a dramatic three setter. It was the first WTA title of her career and the second along with her French Open victory. Haddad Maia and Ostapenko haven’t dropped a set but with more time on court, the world number 64 would try to avenge her loss in Korea and move deeper into the tournament.
The two began with an ease of service holds before Ostapenko went for the break in the third. She kept her serve on lock opening the gap between her and Haddad-Maia. The Brazilian gained a footing on her first serve to notch one to her name in the fifth keeping the Latvian within reach on the scoreboard. Ostapenko made it her intention on keeping a two-game buffer between herself and Haddad Maia. The 21-year-old increased it to three with a break of serve in the seventh and a shot to close out the first.
Despite giving up a point to Haddad-Maia in the eighth, the seventh seed locked down her goal of completing the set in 29 minutes. During the break, Ostapenko took time to speak to coach David Taylor who saw some keys to improve her game but overall gratifying her accomplishments so far. She landed 75 percent of shots on the first serve and 64 percent from the second. It was enough damage to rattle the return game of her opponent who won on 6 of 19 possible points and just three winners.
They began the second with a little more stability holding things together to start the second set. The Latvian quickly turned the tables achieving a break in the third prior to becoming a 3-1 score for the French Open champion. Haddad-Maia refused to give Ostapenko a wide berth and proved it on service in the fifth countering the forehand. The margin remained in favor of Ostapenko keeping Haddad-Maia behind her on the score.
They got to a four all tie where the next couple of games became critical for the two. They battled it out in the ninth where they went to deuce when Haddad-Maia pulled off the hold to threaten the match to continue. Ostapenko answered with a service hold that pushed the set onward leaving a chance to still end the match on her terms. Haddad-Maia made that harder once more taking her serve seriously to secure the 11th and put Ostapenko on notice.
It looked as if it would be an easy transition into the tiebreaker but Haddad-Maia was still at a very high level of competition that she forced deuce during the Latvian’s serve. Seeing the pressure becoming heavier, the 21-year-old got the AD point to keep the hopes of a straight set win alive. They traded off points to start but Ostapenko led the way once again.
Mistakes during the tiebreak gave the Latvian a sizable advantage including a double fault from Haddad-Maia that handed Ostapenko match point. A good rally ended with hard work from the 21-year-old who put the smash down on the Brazilian to come out of trouble in 90 minutes. “I started really well in the match and I was doing well,” she said during her on court interview. “Then the second set saw some key points when I was up 3-1 and then lost a little bit of my confidence but at the end of the match in the tiebreak, I showed my great tennis and I just won the match.” With Monday off for the sixth seed would prep for a big match against American Sofia Kenin or Czech veteran Petra Kvitova in the round of 16.
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