Yulia Putintseva dumps Barbora Krejcikova to move into the semis – Australian Open (juniors) 2012
Russian upcoming star, Yulia Putintseva, cruised into the semi-finals of the Australian open (juniors) championship by defeating the Czech underdog, Barbora Krejcikova, in straight sets 6-2, 6-3.
Both players squared off for the first time in their professional career. There were some nerves at the start of the match but both players settled into the atmosphere well enough. The underdog performer from Czech was owned at
the pitch but she enjoyed her stunning journey throughout the tournament; her fourth seed rival cruises into the semis.
Putintseva exploited the nervy start from her opponent and broke serve in the second game to take the initial 2-0 lead. She carried her momentum in the second serve game and comprehensively held it to mount the lead; scores were
pushed to 3-0.
Finally the Czech held her serve for the first time in the match in the fourth game. The sea-saw battle continued till the seventh game, as the fourth seed contestant continued to hold her three-game lead. Scores were 5-2 by the
end of the seventh game.
Krejcikova served the next game and comprehensively lost it. It was sheer pace and guile of the Russian that took down the Czech in the last game of the first set. With a successful breakthrough, the Russian took one-set lead and
exerted immense pressure on her rival.
The second set was a complete replication of the first one; at least for the first few games. The Russian bagged the first three games that included a single breakthrough. Both players met blow-by-blow in the remaining games of
the set and continued to pose an intense battle on the courts. No more breaks were seen during the second set and that was good enough for the Russian fourth seed participant to book a berth in the semi-finals of the tournament.
Semi-final stage of the juniors’ tournament heats up. Only the top seed from the top four seeds is out of the business whilst the rest of them comfortably see themselves in the last four. It will be interesting to see which of
the seeded players have that extra flair to take them into the title match.
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