Samantha Crawford defeats Antonia Lottner in the semi-finals – Girls Singles US Open 2012
Wild Card entrant, Samantha Crawford, stunned Antonia Lottner after a straight sets defeat on the hard courts of the US Open held at the glorious Flushing Meadows. The local challenger summed up her 3-6, 6-1,
6-2 victory on the Saturday.
Both players were unable to hold their initial serves in the opener set and evened out the scores to 1-all by the end of the second game. The German contender tried her best to provide her opponent with a tough
challenge, squaring the score line to 2-all in the fourth and then 3-all in the sixth game. The German participant broke Crawford’s serve in the eighth game to embark her 6-3 win.
The German had average stats in the first set but successfully bagged home the victory with her 59 percent first serve accuracy, converting 13 of 17 points. On the other hand, the 17-year-old American had a reasonable
first serve of 45 percent, attaining 10 of 14 points.
In the second set, the momentum of the game shifted and the 17-year-old American roared into her opponent drawing the first blood in the set to mark her 2-1 lead in the third game. She also broke Lottner’s serve
in the fourth game bringing the score to 3-1 and the sixth to 5-1. Eventually, she confidently emerged with a surprising win by 6-1.
Lottner lagged behind her opponent because she could not strike even a single ace and double faulted four times. Apart from that she had could not snatch away even a single serve break of the three offered to
her. The American luckily grabbed all the break points, securing 16 of 17 points presented to her.
In the decider, the fourth seeded German contender had a higher first serve of 64 percent but she double faulted three times. Crawford adopted a proactive approach since the start of the tournament. Nonetheless,
Lottner broke her opponent’s serve in the sixth game, bringing the score line to 5-2. The American stepped forward and marked the set with her 6-2 win.
The right-hander American will encounter the 12th seeded, Anett Kontaveit in the semi-finals of the junior Grand Slam Championships.
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