By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Thursday February 1, 2023
The top-seeded Latvian cracked 51 winners as she rallied past Denmark's Tauson and into the last eight at Linz.
Photo Source: TTV
Former Grand Slam champion Jelena Ostapenko already has one title to her name in 2024. Now she’s zeroing in on a second. The top-seeded Latvian rallied to defeat Clara Tauson in Linz on Thursday evening, saving a match point to defeat the Danish qualifier 3-6, 6-4, 7-6(7) in two hours and 21 minutes.
Ostapenko, who won the Adelaide title to start her season, then reached the third round in singles and the final in doubles in Australia, had to fight extremely hard for the victory. She trailed 4-1 in the second set before trotting through the final five games to force a decider; for an encore she saved a match point as Tauson served for the match with a 5-3 lead in the final set.
From there the Latvian went on to convert her third break point before leveling up the match at 5-all.
In the tiebreak, Ostapenko was down 5-4, but took over from there, converting her third match point to close out the win and set a date with Jodie Burrage of Great Britain.
“She played a great match,” Ostapenko said. “I’m really proud of myself that I was fighting until the very last point, even though I was down.”
Ostapenko finished with 51 winners and 37 unforced errors; Tauson managed 32 winners and 29 unforced.
Anastasia Potapova also came back from the brink on Thursday in Austria, saving a pair of match points to defeat Italy’s Elisabetta Cocciaretto 2-6, 7-6(9), 7-5. Potapova will face second-seeded Ekaterina Alexandrova next.
Here’s how the quarterfinals shape up at the 500-level event: