![]() ![]() The 21-year old Californian said she’s usually hard on herself after a loss, but recognized what she accomplished at the ATX Open. She reached her first WTA semifinal and earned a wild card berth into next week’s BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells. Volynets may not have won her semifinal match, but leaves Austin after one of her best weeks as a professional. The two winning teams will meet in Sunday's final. The second seeded team of Erin Routliffe and Aldila Sutjiadi topped Anna-Lena Friedsam and Nadiia Kichenok 6-2, 6-3. On Saturday, the top-seeded team of Nicole Melichar-Martinez and Ellen Perez topped Ingrid Neel and Olivia Tjandramulia 6-3, 6-2. More: Peyton Stearns' early pro success a sign of strength for Texas Longhorns' tennis program Top seeds reach doubles final Kostyuk has played just one three-set match. Three of Gracheva’s wins have been three-set matches. Those wins, even in the quarters against Sloane (Stephens) - it was tight and physical even though it was two sets. By contrast, Kostyuk has needed almost two-and-a-half fewer hours on-court to reach the final. Gracheva, who has spent nearly nine hours in winning her four matches, said she feels fresh and ready to go for Sunday’s final against Kostyuk. She took the lead for good in the second set after the players split the first four games. Kostyuk took control of the opening set by breaking Collins’ serve at 3-3. Danielle is a great player and a great champion and I’m very happy the match turned out this way today.” “I had lost four semifinals before today and I didn’t know what to expect. “Obviously it’s a special moment and I’m very emotional,” Kostyuk, a 20-year old from Ukraine, said. Like Gracheva, the final will be her first on the WTA Tour. More: Meet Kondo Simfukwe, the Indiana pastor behind the mic at the inaugural ATX Open Kostyuk tops Collins to advanceĪlso on Saturday, eighth-seeded Marta Kostyuk topped fourth-seeded Danielle Collins 6-4, 6-3 to earn her spot in Sunday’s championship match. Usually people struggle with their return game so it was kind of unique for the return game to come easier than the serve games.” “The pattern was that both of us started aggressively with the return and immediately push the server back (in the court). “She’s a great returner and I think I’m a great returner as well, so we were both taking turns breaking each other,” Volynets said. Heading into the match, tournament statistics showed that three of the four semifinalists - Gracheva included - had won at least 71% of their service games. The pair combined for 17 service breaks in the 32 games played, a 47% hold rate. Gracheva broke Volynets four times in the first set, and Volynets broke Gracheva four times to win the second set. ![]() Stability for the servers, at least in the first two sets, proved hard to come by. “I tried not to think too much and I was able to find some stability.” “I hit some good serves and played some good holding points,” Gracheva said. But it is mentally difficult when something like that happens in such a close moment.”įollowing the crucial break, Gracheva easily held serve to take a 5-4 lead and then closed out the match by breaking Volynets for a ninth time over the three sets. I don’t think that’s why I lost the match. That was a crucial point and it didn’t go my way. “Sometimes one point can turn things around,” Volynets said. Trailing 4-3, Gracheva took advantage of a timely net cord to earn and then convert a break point to level the set. If I had stayed there, Katie has such a beautiful game, and when you are down mentally, it is impossible.” “I knew that if I lose the serve (at 4-2), I would barely have a chance to come back because she was pressing me a lot,” said Gracheva, a 22-year old from Russia. Gracheva won 6-4, 5-7, 6-4 in a match that lasted 2 hours, 24 minutes to the delight of a packed stadium court at Westwood Country Club. Gracheva produced back-to-back service holds after falling behind 4-2 in the final set to rally past Katie Volynets and advance to Sunday’s ATX Open singles championship. Marie Bouzkova is a very fine player, but there also isn’t that much she could do when Sabalenka’s on song like that, she doesn’t really have the skillset to throw her off her game.In a semifinal match dominated by service breaks, Varvara Gracheva regained control of her serve at the perfect time. The Belarusian is still sitting at an absurd 18-2 win/loss record for the year and while we started seeing some chinks in her armor after Australia, she’s still comfortably been the best player of 2023. It’s not going to be easy to stop Aryna Sabalenka in this tournament. ![]()
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