Jelena Ostapenko blows Andrea Petkovic off her feet in straight sets

Jelena Ostapenko clenches her first during a second-round match at the St. Petersburg Ladies Trophy.

Jelena Ostapenko rushed to victory against a tough opponent that was quickly tamed at the St. Petersburg Ladies Trophy Thursday night. The Latvian was on fire from start to finish against Andrea Petkovic, who couldn’t get a grip and fell 6-1, 6-2 at Sibur Arena. The seventh seed had 40 winners that devastated the hard-hitting German to enter the quarterfinals.  

The two split the last four meetings with the German winning the most recent pair. Her last win over the Latvian came on an indoor court back in Moscow, leaving the door open to get another win on the same surface. Ostapenko had a better first-round win than Petkovic, who battled hard in the opening set against Rebecca Peterson. The seventh seed tried to use her good moments against Xinyu Wang and put pressure on the 34-year-old for a spot in the semifinal.

Ostapenko led the way with a serve to love, followed by Petkovic, who allowed a point during her service. The seventh seed kept her game well rounded and in the fourth game, broke Petkovic with her aggressive style. She made it 4-1, with hard forehand winners that beat Petkovic to the return each time. The German struggled with another service game, committing errors that handed Ostapenko the break and a 5-1 stance to go for the set. The 24-year-old rushed her way through the service that ultimately took down Petkovic in 23 minutes. 

Both had just nine unforced errors, one ace, and double fault but the 16 winners Ostapenko fired in the set gave her a heavy momentum going forward. The 34-year-old tried to get a good service in to start the second set, only to see the Latvian answer with aggressive shots that pinpointed their mark. A forehand return winner landed dead on the inside tramline, making a statement that she was not going to drop her level. 

She took a 2-0 lead, scoring an ace to win a game that had Petkovic running for the ball each time. Petkovic knew that she had to get a hold on the Latvian or fall into a big hole. In the third, she kept the Latvian to 15 before taking the win, Ostapenko remained firm on offense and took the next two games to stand at 4-1. The German pushed hard in the sixth when she gained a 40-0 run on the seventh seed. 

Ostapenko fought back to force deuce and gain an AD point. Petkovic denied her and gained two chances herself but couldn’t put it away. She lost the defensive energy to stop the Latvian from winning it on the second try that secured the hold and put her closer to the match. Petkovic played to stay in the competition, but the seventh seed was all over her in an attempt to break. As they went to deuce, the 34-year-old refused to let her service get further out of hand and scored the AD point to make it 5-2. 

Despite being down 0-30, Ostapenko dug in for the comeback on serve and won the next four games with the last going into the set to end 58 minutes. She kept the unforced errors low with 24 and served at 68 percent with four aces. “I think I played especially well on the first serve, was playing really aggressive, and could have won the match early but at 4-1 I had some problems,” Ostapenko said. “You can’t play evenly throughout the match because my tennis is very aggressive.” She’d try to keep it together when she faces Aliaksandra Sasnovich for the ffourth in her career for a spot at the semis.