The two met back in 2017 where Davis bested the soon to be French Open champion of that year. As they met on clay the week before the rescheduled major in Paris, the Latvian wanted to get more time in on clay after her run in Rome didn’t pan out. The forehand serve of Ostapenko’s still wasn’t fine-tuned as she gave up too many points to Magda Linette in Rome. With a loss already against the American, the 23-year-old eyed a difference maker to light up her skills with a week before the open.
She got into a good form in the opening match with people in the stands clapping for her. The Latvian took the break in the second game but on her return in the third, a double fault came out putting her into a hole. She rallied back to the lead, showing patience before making her returns that allowed her to take a 3-0 hold on Davis. The Latvian had the double break in hand as the American wasn’t up to par with her offense.
The 23-year-old served very strong with her confidence and score against Davis rising. When she finished the fifth, the Latvian had Davis on the edge of the first as she served to stay in it. A strong service helped the 26-year-old avoid the bagel and a triple break. She consolidated it with a break as insects caused Ostapenko some troubles that brought out a fourth double fault and errors along the way.
Turning that around, she put together a number of groundstrokes that sent Davis left and right to earn three set points. A double fault from the American, brought the first to a close in 29 minutes. Despite having some hiccups on serve, Ostapenko won 77 percent of points from the serve and all three of her break point opportunities. With her best foot forward, the 23 would try to move that into the second.
She put together another fine serve but the bar set high was cleared by the American in the second, who went on to take a break from the Latvian. Showing frustrations from her troubling service game, Ostapenko brought the heat to Davis in the fourth who not only battled her opponent back but the bugs near the baseline. It forced deuce for the 23-year-old who settled in, waiting for the fifth deuce to notch the AD point and level back.
A third game was broken in the set as Ostapenko couldn’t hold back the errors from the forehand. Having handed Davis the double break, the Latvian got one of her own in a third straight lengthy deuce draw. The American was under pressure from Ostapenko, but saved breakpoint to force deuce. They played through four more before the 23-year-old notched a double break as well.
Holding came as a reward for Ostapenko as she got her game under control and fired away with the forehand. She broke Davis in the eighth for the triple break, giving her tons of confidence to await the finish. She held the 26-year-old back to gain two match points where the second brought her day to a successful close in 1 hour and 17 minutes.
A major improvement to her game saw her win 66 percent on first serve points and returning better from the second. Outscoring the American 69-48 was a huge statement that she could do much more with the focus in hand. A challenge in the second round awaited her in third seeded Kiki Bertens who would get her second match in the books since the shutdown.
No comments:
Post a Comment