Potapova defeated the seventh racket in the world! The Russian wants to make up for her failure at the US Open
Alexander Nasonov September 14, 2023, 09:00 Moscow time
In the second round in San Diego, Anastasia turned out to be stronger than the first seed Ons Jabeur.
This week a WTA-500 tournament is being held in San Diego (USA). The first seed was Ons Jabeur of Tunisia, the seventh racket in the world. Three Russians also entered the tournament: Veronika Kudermetova, sixth seed, Ekaterina Alexandrova (8) and Anastasia Potapova. Kudermetova and Alexandrova left the fight in the first round: Veronica lost 4:6, 4:6 to the 2020 Australian Open champion Sofia Kenin, who received a wild card from the organizers, and Ekaterina lost in a bitter Fight against winner of Roland Garros 2017 Elena Ostapenko – 6:7, 7:6, 5:7.
But Potapova is satisfied with the results from earlier in the week. In the first match of the tournament, the Russian beat the American Alicia Parks 6: 2, 5: 7, 6: 4, and in the second round she had to fight with Jabeur, who had rested in the first round. . They had only met once before: in the Birmingham 2021 quarterfinals, Anastasia lost 4-6, 0-6.
Both athletes intended to rehabilitate themselves after their failure at the US Open. Potapova, who was ranked 27th, completely failed in the tournament, losing in the first round to 20-year-old Denmark’s Clara Tauson. Jabeur also underperformed expectations. The Tunisian representative only reached the round of 16, where she lost to China’s Zheng Qingwen in two sets.
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In the first set, the rivals, who often made mistakes in their rallies, in addition to everything else, could not properly establish their serve. Suffice it to say that in the first eight games, one or the other tennis player had at least one break point. At first Potapova took advantage of his chances a little better and took the lead 3:1, then 4:2. Then Jabeur improved and recovered 4:4. However, the end of the set was left in the hands of the Russian. First, Anastasia took her serve for the first time without a break point and then broke to love for 6:4 in 53 minutes. There were also many double faults: Potapova had four, Jabeur had five.
In the second game, Anastasia and Ons, after the score was 1:1, exchanged breaks for 2:2. In the fifth game, Potapova escaped a double break point, but in the ninth he lost serve, allowing a double at the end. Despite this, the Russian did not allow her opponent to serve for the set, making a reverse break for 5:5.
Then the image was repeated: Anastasia gave up her serve, but recomposed herself and sent the set to the tiebreaker. Here Potapova led 4-0, but then lost the entire field 4-4. And she still put the finishing touches on her opponent! Jabeur, allowing a double, gave the Russian a double match point, which he immediately took advantage of: 6:4, 7:6 (7:4) in 1 hour 47 minutes.
Thus Potapova reached the quarterfinals of the 500 in San Diego. This is her sixth victory over the current representative of the top 10 of the WTA ranking. Previously, the Russian defeated Angelique Kerber, Anett Kontaveit, Corey Gauff (twice) and Caroline García.
In the quarterfinals, Anastasia’s opponent will be the aforementioned Sofia Kenin, who in her second round match defeated another American, Katie Volynets (WC), 1:6, 6:4, 6:2.
Follow all the tournament events in the “Championship”.
