WTA Acapulco: Sofia Kenin halts Victoria Azarenka. Vekic and Andreescu win
The 3rd seed Donna Vekic has been in good form so far in 2019 and she is still in contention for the title in Acapulco after a 6-3, 7-5 win over the 8th seed Johanna Konta in an hour and 26 minutes. Donna played better on the second serve, suffering four breaks and erasing that deficit after taking almost 60% of the return points, earning six breaks from ten chances to cross the finish line and move into the last four. They traded breaks at the start of the match and it was Donna who controlled the pace in the rest of the opener, breaking Johanna at 4-3 and clinching the set with a good hold in game nine for a 6-3.
The second set saw dreadful serving from both and they exchanged six breaks in the opening nine games, with Konta delivering three breaks in a row to open a 5-3 lead. Staying confident and composed, Donna pulled the break back at love in game nine and never looked back, securing another one at 5-5 and sealing the deal with an ace in game 12. An 18-year-old Canadian Bianca Andreescu took down the 7th seed Saisai Zheng 7-6, 6-1 in just under two hours, surviving the marathon opening set and racing towards the finish line with a fabulous performance in the second.
The Canadian repelled ten out of 12 break points, a vast majority of those in the first set, earning four breaks to hold the strings of the match in her hands in set number two. From 4-0 down, Zheng rattled off five games in a row to overcome the deficit and the battle switched into a tie break after four good holds on both sides, with Bianca winning it 7-3 to gain a massive boost before the rest of the encounter. At 1-1 in set number two, Andreescu grabbed the remaining five games and she will now face Sofia Kenin in the battle for the place in the final. The 5th seeded American prevailed against Victoria Azarenka 6-4, 4-6, 7-5 after two hours and 32 minutes in the match of the day, despite hitting 13 double faults!
Both players faced 13 break chances and Sofia won just two points more in the end, taking the last three games of the match to leave Vika empty handed even though she served for the victory at 5-4. A former world no. 1 broke in the third game of the encounter with a return winner, opening a 4-2 advantage before Sofia started to fight back, breaking Azarenka at 3-4 and once again in the tenth game to steal the set with four straight games on her tally. The second set offered seven breaks of serve in ten games and the Belarusian grabbed four of those, squandering the lead once again before moving 5-4 up with a beautiful volley winner, clinching the set with a hold at 15 to set up a decider.
There, Sofia sprayed a backhand error at 4-4 to lose serve and allow Vika to serve out for the win, although it wasn't to be for a multiple Grand Slam champion, hitting a double fault to lose serve at love and sending Kenin over the top after another poor service game at 5-6.
from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/2EGnN3O
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