Tatjana Maria had the competition breathing down her neck but kept the edge in her favor to advance at the Korea Open Tuesday. The German found very little comfort against Eugenie Bouchard, who put another strong performance to make it a challenging 7-6(5), 7-6(5) score on center court at the Olympic Park Tennis Center.
The two nearly met up in Chennai last week, but the German lost a challenging three setter to Nadia Podoroska. She gets her chance to test the skills of the Canadian, who felt proud of herself, going three matches in a tournament for the first time in under two years. In her quest to improve her WTA ranking, Bouchard had to level the series after her 2015 loss to Maria in Miami. Though their last meeting occurred seven years ago, the 35-year-old wanted to avoid going 0-2 in Seoul and against a Canadian again.
Bouchard delivered a good service hold to start the match, then went after Maria on her serve in the second. The 35-year-old prevented a break chance for the Canadian, only to struggle with clinching the AD point. Three was a charm for Maria, who got out of a jam but knew that Bouchard was playing her best tennis on the night. Bouchard and Maria continued to hold serve, allowing very few points through the next four games.
By the end of the ninth, both players served to love twice, with Bouchard up 5-4. Serving to stay in the set, Maria didn’t want to be the first to drop a point, and after going 17 points straight, a double fault ended the streak. Though she gave up the point, the German held to make it five-all. The pressure was on Bouchard to outduel the seventh seed, but despite the close score, she forced the German to match or fall a set down.
Maria kept her game tight, forcing errors from Bouchard to go to a tiebreak where she again fell behind. The Canadian led the way early, but fell into trouble with forehand returns that gave Maria control. She waited for her moment to gain another minibreak before conducting a way to edge past Bouchard. She had two set points to work with, clinching the win over the 28-year-old 7-5 in 61 minutes.
It was a very close finish between the two, but the leg up for Maria gave her a boost to be the one controlling the pace. She held to open the second set, watching Bouchard serve to love in response in the second game. Holding serve in the third led to a break up for the German, but being broken back was a huge way of Bouchard staying within reach. After leveling again in the sixth, Maria notched her second serve to love of the set to lead 4-3, making the eighth game critical for her to win.
Bouchard defended her side of the court even after Maria forced deuce. They went five breaks where the Canadian saved three breakpoints, going on to hold the serve. She worked out a break of the seventh seed in the ninth to be the first to serve for the set and move them into a decider. Maria powered her way through to even the score at five-all, pressuring Bouchard on serve. She forced deuce but fell after three breaks, suffering a deficit when she got shutout in the 11th.
The Canadian got a jump on the third point of the 12th game, running away with the win that sealed them into another tiebreak. The German controlled her path to victory, keeping the 28-year-old behind her just enough to take the match 7-5, ending a 2 hour and 19 minute thriller.
No comments:
Post a Comment