Anna Schmiedlova upsets Katerina Siniakova to reach semis – Girls’ Singles French Open 2012
Slovakian starlet, Anna Schmiedlova, stunned the fifth seed, Katerina Siniakova of Czech Republic, in a three-set thriller at the Girls’ Singles Roland Garros 2012 on Thursday. She summed up a 7-6(5), 3-6, 6-1 victory against the 16-year-old to secure a spot in the semi-finals at this second of the four Grand Slam events held in France.
The in-form Slovak showed fascinating tennis to oust Siniakova in their first encounter. After earning the glory in two hours and 38 minutes, Schmiedlova assertively advanced into the last four at this prestigious clay court tournament.
Schmiedlova made a drastic entry at the court number 16 and suffered the first blow in the opening game to trail at 0-1. However, she made a strong reply and after breaking her opponent’s serve twice, the Slovak leaped to a 5-2 lead. Despite losing her edge in the ninth game, she enforced a tie-breaker and dominated in it to pull out the opener with a 7-6(5) win.
The higher ranked Siniakova proved her class in the proceeding set. She gifted away her serve in the third game but reeled off the following four games in a row, eventually jumping to a 5-2 lead. The Czech plucked her serve once more and sealed the equaliser by winning six games to three.
The underdog carried her drastic ways in the final set and endured the initial damage to go 0-1 down. However, she made a stunning reply and went on a six-game tear. Schmiedlova broke her opponent’s serve three times and pulled out the decider with a breadstick.
All in all, the Slovak clobbered a better first serve share of 63 per cent in contrast with the seed’s 44 per cent but brilliantly availed 44 out of 70 points on it. She spilled fewer errors and finished the deal with 114 points.
The Slovak has displayed exceptional skills throughout the event. She stunned 13th seed Daria Gavrilova and top seed Taylor Townsend en route to the semi-finals.
Schmiedlova will next confront the German qualifier, Antonia Lottner, who tumbled over the local wildcard entrant, Clothilde De Bernardi, in straight sets to set up this meeting.
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