Tennis
Sensation from a Russian tennis player! She took revenge on her rival from Poland 10 years later
Valeria Savinykh / Photo: © Juan Manuel Serrano Arce / Freelancer / Getty Images Sport / Gettyimages.ru
Our athlete passed the three-hour test and continues to rise in the rankings.
The second seed of the WTA tournament in Nanchang, Poland’s Magda Linette, lost her chances for the title after the first match. The offender of the 23rd racket of the world was Russian Valeria Savinykh, who is far outside the top 100.
The super sensation from the tennis player from Russia is also valuable because Lera has been waiting for 10 years for the opportunity to get even with her offender.
Match ten years ago
At the beginning of the last decade, Valeria Savinykh was one of the hopes of Russian tennis. At the age of 21, she overcame the most important milestone for every professional and entered the top 100, and in 2013 she reached the fourth round of the Australian Open. But it never rose above the 99th position. Injuries prevented him from unlocking his potential.
Frankly speaking, Russian fans managed to forget about the tennis player who moved to Austria, but Lera made them remember. The 32-year-old athlete is having a great time in the Asian series of tournaments. In Tokyo and Ningbo, Savinykh reached the 1/8 finals, starting her journey with qualifications. Against the backdrop of these successes, she improved her position in the ranking and returned to the top 150. The Russian started the competition in Nanchang from the main draw. True, the lot turned out to be harsh: in the first round she got the second seeded Magda Linette. The Polish woman ranks 23rd in the WTA rankings against the 146th Savins.
The athletes had already met before, but that was a very long time ago. In 2013 they played at the ITF tournament in Jouet-les-Tours. The victory in three games went to Linette – 4:6; 7:5; 6:0.
“I can not believe this”
We had to wait more than ten years for a new face-to-face confrontation. The Polish woman has made significant progress during this time. She played in the semi-finals of the Australian Open and also won two WTA titles. Experts and bookmakers did not leave Savina a chance before the match, but the start unexpectedly remained with the Russian.
Valeria brilliantly took advantage of her opponent’s mistakes and led with a score of 5:2. Subsequently, our tennis player missed two set points and allowed her opponent to equalize the score, but in the end she managed to control her nerves and took a big step towards a loud sensation.
The second set turned out to be unsuccessful for the Savins. The more titled opponent began to serve more powerfully, her number of aces increased, and her mistakes practically disappeared. This allowed Lynette to take the game with a score of 6:3.
The most dramatic events unfolded in the third set, which lasted almost an hour and a half. This segment resembled a swing. First, the tennis player from Poland led with a score of 3:1. There was a feeling that Savinykh was about to be eliminated from the tournament, but the Russian showed character and won five games in a row.
Valeria could only go out and collect her serve, but she wavered again, allowing her opponent to reduce the gap to a minimum. In the tenth game, Valeria had a lot of opportunities to close the match, but she did not convert four match points, and the score became equal – 5:5.
And then an episode happened that could have buried Valeria’s hopes of victory. In the 11th game, the line judge saw an out in a completely unobvious situation. Savinykh was simply furious. For a minute, she voiced her complaints to the chief arbiter in a raised voice.
“I can’t believe it,” said Valeria.
The Russian played this game with emotion. Now Magda was one step away from victory. The Polish woman served and was obliged to end the match with a victory, but the steely character of the Savins left her a chance. First, the Russian equalized the score, and then succeeded in the tiebreaker – 7:3.
Victory in this three-hour confrontation helped Valeria not only advance to the next round of the tournament, but also take revenge for the defeat ten years ago. In the next round, the Russian will play with the representative of Belarus Alexandra Sasnovich.
Source: Sportbox
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