Jelena Ostapenko will never give up to beat 10th seed Barbora Krejcikova 7-6 6-0 and qualify for the last 16 of the Italian Open in Rome in 2023.
From 1-1, 30/0, the Latvian dropped 16 points after he was unable to stop an unforced error flowing from his racket.
Refusing to give up, from a position of 1-5, the 20th seed began to create a series of winners and grabbed five games in a row so that he won 6-5. In the course of winning those games, he won 20 of 27 points and faced no game points.
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From 6-6 in the first set and trailing by 0/2 in the tiebreak, the Latvian won 28 of the next 31 points, allowing her to take the first set and open the second with a 5-0, 15/0 advantage.
Ostapenko won the tiebreaker with one of four aces he hit in the match. He then only lost three points in the first five games of the second set.
Although the Czech national, Krejickova showed tenacity by creating a break point opportunity in the final game of the match, she was unable to capitalize.
The 2017 French Open champion finished the match with 21 winners and 18 unforced errors. In contrast to this, the 2021 French Open champion, Krejcikova, only produced nine winners and made 23 unforced errors.
The win put the 20th seed in the fourth round of the Italian Open for the fourth time in her career. Moreover, she further excelled in the head to head against Krejcikova by 4-2.
“At the start, he played well. I’m not really playing my game and I’m struggling a bit. In the end, I played well and I didn’t give him many chances to improve. It matters when you don’t play your best game,” Jelena Ostapenko said.
Ostapenko also holds a 4-2 lead in her head to head against her Italian Open fourth round opponent, the eighth seed, Daria Kasatkina.
Kasatkina, who once made the semi-finals in Rome, returned to the fourth round after fighting it out to finish one of the longest women’s matches of the season. She needed 3 hours and 19 minutes to beat Austrian tennis player, Julia Grabher 7-5, 4-6, 7-6.
“Kasatkina is a good player, but I always have to play my game against her and focus more on myself. If I play like I did in the second set, I hope I can bring that energy and that level of play,” said Kasatkina.
