WTA Strasbourg: Dayana Yastremska edges Caroline Garcia to lift the trophy
In the last test ahead of Roland Garros, the 19-year-old Dayana Yastremska has claimed the third WTA title in Strasbourg, saving a match point and overpowering the 4th seed and home favorite Caroline Garcia 6-4, 5-7, 7-6. The match lasted two hours and 58 minutes (the most extended WTA final in 2019 so far) and they pushed each other to the limits from start to finish, with 31 break points up for grabs and six breaks of serve for each player. In the end, the Ukrainian won 12 points more than her rival, prevailing in the deciding tie break to become the fourth player in 2019 with two WTA titles after Kiki Bertens, Petra Kvitova and Karolina Pliskova and continue her charge towards the top-20.
A teenager lost six of the last seven matches ahead of Strasbourg but that all changed this week, finding her best tennis when it mattered the most and traveling to Paris with the trophy in hands. Trailing 6-4, 5-3, 2016 champion saved two match points to extend the encounter and get a chance to bring it home in the final set, unable to make that one last push and convert the match point at 5-4. Dayana hit a double fault in game two to suffer a break and bounced back quickly, stealing rival's serve four times in a row to erase the deficit and stay in front.
Caroline stayed in touch with breaks in games six and eight before Yastremska held at 15 in game ten to bring the first set home 6-4 and move closer to the finish line. The youngster broke at the beginning of the second set as well for the fifth consecutive return game, repelling six break points to open a 5-3 lead and creating two match points on the return in the ninth game. Caroline saved them both, closed it and delivered that moment of magic that helped her gaining confidence, scoring back-to-back breaks in games ten and 12 (double fault from Yastremska) to rattle off four straight games and force a decider.
There, they traded breaks in games three and four and served well until game ten when Dayana had to save a match point, blasting much-needed good serve to get out of trouble and level the score at 5-5. She was now the favorite in the breaker and won it 7-3 with a service winner, falling to the ground and celebrating the third WTA crown at such a young age.
from Tennis World USA http://bit.ly/2YOgldP
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