Taylor Townsend stuns Yulia Putintseva to claim the championship – Australian Open (juniors) 2012
Taylor Townsend outclassed the fourth seed Russian, Yulia Putintseva, to win her first Major title in the junior’s category at the Australian Open. On Saturday, both players faced-off for the first time in their career and a stunning
performance from the, 15-years-old American flabbergasted everyone at the arena. After an epic three-setter, Townsend was crowned champion with final scores of 6-1, 3-6, 6-3.
The underdog performer picked momentum right from the start of the match as she broke serve in the second game and took 3-0 lead. She continued to hammer down her opponent with cracking winners down the line. The immense pressure
forced several unforced errors from the Russian and her serve was broke once again in the sixth game that closed all doors of comeback in the first set. Townsend bagged the first set at 6-1.
The Russian was not going to gift the triumph to her opponent that easy; she composed herself during the set break and came as a completely different player. She bagged first four games with some utmost aggression and delightful
winners down the line. Townsend was broken twice in the first four games that clearly dismantled her confidence.
The American broke serve back in the fifth game but couldn’t repeat the same heroics once more to level the scores. Second set was bagged by the Russian and the match entered a final set. Last game of the set was started in a nervy
manner by both players as they broke each other‘s serve in the first two games. Next five games witnessed no breakthroughs as the scores were pushed to 4-3 in favour of the American.
Putintseva felt pressure at that stage and failed to hold on to her serve in the eighth game. It proved to be the turning point in the set. After failing to perform the basics right, she had to broke serve immediately to level
the scores but her opponent was clever enough to make her play every point.. Townsend played couple of drop shots with utmost authority that were good enough to win her the maiden juniors Slam title of her career.
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