The two met for the first time in WTA action but had experience dating back six years. During their days of fighting to make the main tour, Krejcikova fought to gain progress in their careers. The Latvian won every meeting she had with the Czech and would try to add another in the main draw competition. Ostapenko took care of business Monday defeating Patricia Tig in straight sets. With some finesse returning to her game, she managed to limit the mistakes and conduct momentum that paid off. With the earlier history between the two, the 23-year-old had much to look forward to in a rekindling of their rivaled past.
Krejcikova opened with a strong service game holding Ostapenko to just one point. The Czech found her points easily with some aggression on returns that earned her a break and 2-0 lead. Krejcikova increased the difficulty in the third, drawing errors out of the Latvian who expressed her frustrations louder and louder as the errors passed by. After a third straight loss, she yelled at her camp before heading to the bench to cool off.
The 23-year-old didn’t stay there for long as she was destined to clean things up from her end. A double fault didn’t help her troubles, but a winner down the line came next. Drawing errors from Krejcikova helped her get on the board, but she still had catching up to do. A break back for the Latvian came on balls that were hit too hard by the Czech, leaving just one game between them.
The 25-year-old refused to let all her ground be lost to her opponent and in the sixth, broke Ostapenko back to double up the gap. A consolidation of her service gave her a shot at taking a set, but with the Latvian built up on offense, it would be a breakdown from her end to up a lot of ground. Despite a double fault, Ostapenko managed to hold serve in the eighth but required defense and good returns to keep her in the set. Krejcikova allowed her only one point on serve, reaching two set points before forcing an error that gave her the set in 36 minutes.
In an effort to turn things around for herself, Ostapenko came out blazing to a 40-0 situation. Krejcikova was far from giving in and climbed back to wreak havoc for the Latvian. Forcing deuce, the Czech waited for the key error that brought up an AD point which she clinched to earn the opening break. Knowing she let her serve get out of hand, Ostapenko tried to pull off a serve to love, but Krejcikova fought back and drew errors to force deuce.
The 23-year-old hadn’t given up in the second as she produced breakpoints on deuce, but on the fourth break, Krejcikova managed to hold, backing up the break. The Czech increased her momentum on Ostapenko, securing her the double break with the forehand doing work. She backed that up with good service in the fourth, keeping the 23-year-old far away.
Ostapenko got one on the board in the fifth, holding serve and keeping Krejcikova to one point. While the effort showed an improvement, it was too little too late as Krejcikova was on a mission. She battled back breakpoint attempts from the Latvian while on serve but held on the first deuce. To return the favor, the Czech jumped to three match points with the Latvian committing her fourth double fault. She went down hard in the form of a shutout that gave the 25-year-old the win on the day, taking 1 hour and 12 minutes to do it.
No comments:
Post a Comment