Yulia Putintseva and Natalija Kostic reach quarterfinals in girls’ singles – French Open 2011
Seventh seeded Russian, Yulia Putintseva earned a marvellous 3-6, 6-1, 6-2 victory over Alison Van Uytvanck of Belgium to book her place in the quarterfinal of the Girls’ Singles draw at the 2011 French Open in Paris.
Putintseva looked a bit out of sorts early on but as the match progressed she was able to find her game and displayed some top quality tennis to come back from behind and clinch an important victory.
The 16-year-old made a shaky start to the match as some of her forehand and backhand shots landed outside the lines in the opening set. The Belgian was up to take the opportunities and made the Russian pay heavily for her unforced errors. Despite controlling most of the rallies, Putintseva failed to turn things to her advantage and soon found her trailing 4-1 in the game score. Converting her only break chance in the set, Uytvanck put herself in the driving seat and held on to her serve games with ease to take the set score lead 1-0.
Looking down and out in the match, Putintseva regrouped herself and showed amazing fighting spirit and determination to turn the tables. With a break of serve early in the second set, the Russian gained some sort momentum in the match. Although Uytvanck broke back once in the set, she was unable to stop her opponent from evening the set score 1-1. An excellent 84 percent first serve conversion in the set allowed the Russian to dictate terms. Her well anticipated serve returns also proved to be vital as she secured 67 per cent of the points at the receiving end.
The Russian continued to dominate to the challenger in the final set as well. Breaking the serve twice in the set earned her an impassable 5-2 lead in the set. She then claimed her next service game with four straight points to end the battle that lasted for one hour and 50 minutes. Uytvanck was disappointed with her efforts as she let the opportunities slip away after doing so well in the opening set.
Meanwhile fourth seeded Serbian Natalija Kostic also booked a semi-final berth with a 6-4, 4-6, 6-2 victory over Victoria Duval of United States.
Kostic looked to attack her opponent right from the start of the match. She broke the serve at regular intervals and created all sorts of problems for Duval with her incredible baseline play. Duval put up a good fight but lacked firepower in certain areas of the game. The American struggled to handle the pressure as she managed to convert only three out of eleven break chances in the match, which proved to be the real difference between the contestants.
Tags: