Thursday, January 12, 2017

Bouchard ease past Pavlyuchenkova, Konta sails into semifinals at Apia International Sydney 2017

In a meeting between two of the rising stars, Johanna Konta proved to be the better player by defeating Daria Kasatkina 6-3 7-5. In the previous match, after a stellar performance, the Russian sent home the world nº1 and looked to keep her momentum, but failed. Playing a very aggressive game from the baseline, the British hit 14 winners and only 11 unforced errors to grab the first set after 38 minutes by 6-3. In the second set, Kasatkina started more solid by breaking her opponent´s serve and leading 4-2. In the next game, she was serving for 5-2, but after the longest game of the match that has had 8 times deuce, Johanna found a way to recover her deficit and leveled at 4-all. "She had just beat the World No.1, so I knew she was going to be tough!" From there, the world number 10 took advantage of being the player more experienced and won the last 3 of 4 games to close the match after one hour and 41 minutes. After this performance,  Konta moves through to her second semifinals of 2017.    


In a meeting where the both players have never faced before and have had impressive wins in their previous matches, Eugenie Bouchard eases past Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-2 6-3. It was a one-way victory for the Canadian, taking early breaks and advantages in the both sets. At the beginning of the match, each player has won their 2 games of services, being tied at 2-2. From there, Bouchard was on fire, breaking for the first time in the sixth game when Pavlyuchenkova missed a backhand down to the line and for the second time in the eighth game grabbing the inaugural set by 6-2. In the second set, the story has been much the same with the Russian being able to steal only 3 games because, the former world nº5 was just too good, showing her arsenal of shots and powering winners from the both sides. By this win, after one hour and 14 minutes, the 22-years-old marked her first victory against the nº27 in the world and advanced to the semifinals to continue her route here at the Apia International Sydney 2017.    

So, in the second semifinal of Apia International Sydney 2017, Johanna Konta will meet Eugenie Bouchard for their second encounter. The match is planned to be played tomorrow, during the evening session on the beautiful Ken Rosewall Arena.     

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