BERLIN/ BIRMINGHAM — Top-seeded Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus and No. 5 Coco Gauff were ousted by a pair of Russians in the second round of the bett1open in Berlin.
No.2 seed Jelena Ostapenko returned to the quarter-finals of the Rothesay Classic after defeating Venus Williams 6-3, 5-7, 6-3 in the Round of 16 in Birmingham. The victory is the Latvian’s first over Williams in three meetings.
Veronika Kudermetova defeated Sabalenka 6-2, 7-6 (2) while Ekaterina Alexandrova needed just 75 minutes to dispatch Gauff, 6-4, 6-0. Kudermetova and Alexandrova will face each other in the quarter-finals.
Alexandrova, who successfully defended her ‘s-Hertogenbosch title last week in a dramatic three-set triumph over Kudermetova, notched her second Top 10 win of the year following her defeat of Belinda Bencic in Miami, and the 11th of her career overall.
Kudermetova, meanwhile, beat Sabalenka in the second round in Berlin for the second consecutive year. Twelve months ago, she won 2-6, 7-5, 6-4.
The 28-year-old Alexandrova had lost to Gauff from two match points up in their only previous meeting, 7-6(3), 2-6, 7-6(8) in the first round of Dubai 2021.
However, after falling behind 3-1 in the first set, she won 11 of the last 12 games to reach the Berlin quarterfinals for the second time in her career.
“Honestly, I don’t know,” said Alexandrova afterwards when asked about her strong grass-court form.
“Grass is not my favorite surface, but somehow I’m managing to play so well on it. And maybe the score looks easy, but it’s never like that because she played amazing.
“I needed to stay focused during every single point to keep it that way. I’m just hoping I can keep this form as long as I can.”
Alexandrova immediately broke back and thereafter won all three of the contest’s multi-deuce tussles to run away with the scoreboard.
The first was at 4-4 in the first set. Gauff saved four break points in this game alone with service winners, but a stellar volley from Alexandrova converted her fifth. She duly served out the opener with little fuss.
The second set opened with two tight games. In the first, Gauff found superb winners to fend off the first three break points, but was unable to reach game point herself — and conceded the break with a netted forehand on the fourth break point.
She had two opportunities to break Alexandrova back immediately, but was stymied by solid serving from her opponent.
Gauff had her share of crowd-pleasing winners in the second set, notably two reflexed counterpunching reactions.
However, she was undone by a slew of cheap mistakes, including 27 unforced errors on the forehand side alone. By contrast, Alexandrova was rock-solid in executing her first-strike tennis.
Kudermetova now boasts a Top 3 win on all three surfaces in her career, having beaten Jessica Pegula at the Mutua Madrid Open this spring, and Karolina Pliskova at the Western & Southern Open in 2020.
She broke Sabalenka three times in 1 hour and 39 minutes, including twice in the first four games of the match to sprint out to a 4-0 lead. Trailing 6-2, 4-2, Sabalenka won three straight games, and later at 6-5, was two points away from pushing the match the distance at deuce on Kudermetova’s serve.
In the end, a commanding 6-1 start for Kudermetova in the tiebreak helped push her over the line.
Sixth-seeded Maria Sakkari of Greece made quick work of Belarus’ Aliaksandra Sasnovich, 6-2, 6-1 to advance. Marketa Vondrousova of the Czech Republic advanced when Germany’s Jule Niemeier retired in the second set, with Vondrousova leading 6-3, 6-5.
Ostapenko returned to the quarter-finals of the Rothesay Classic after defeating Williams 6-3, 5-7, 6-3 in Birmingham.
Ostapenko will face Poland’s Magdalena French next. The 72nd-ranked qualifier defeated No.8 seed Sorana Cirstea 6-3, 6-7(1), 6-4.
In the marquee meeting between two former Slam champions, Williams earned the early advantage.
The five-time Wimbledon champion came into the match on the heels of a grueling three-hour effort to defeat Camila Giorgi to secure her first win on grass since 2021. She held a 2-0 advantage in the head-to-head against Ostapenko, with both wins coming in 2017.
Their last meeting was a lengthy 7-5, 6-7(3), 7-5 win at the 2017 WTA Finals in Singapore.
After pressuring the Ostapenko serve early, Williams broke for a 3-2 lead with the help of an outstanding lunging backhand slice that landed as a perfect drop shot. But the 2017 French Open champion responded with an immediate break at love.
From there, Ostapenko found the range on her return, overpowering Williams from the baseline to seal the opening set after 35 minutes. Williams did not win a point behind her second serve in the first set, going 0 for 8.
After a pair of holds to move the score to 2-2 in the second set, Williams took an off-court medical timeout.
When play resumed, Ostapenko broke serve immediately to lead 3-2, and she extended that lead to 5-3.
Then, serving to stay in the match, Williams saved a match point to hold in a lengthy four-deuce game to close the gap to 5-4.
Having seen her chance to close out the match come and go, Ostapenko played an error-strewn game to give Williams the break back and level the set at 5-5.
“She’s a great champion and that hasn’t gone anywhere,” Ostpaenko said. “That’s always going to be with her. It’s great to play against players like her. She’s an idol to a lot of people so it was very special. Maybe that’s why I got a little bit tight in the second set.”
In all, Williams would win six consecutive games to not only take the match into an improbable third set but lead by 2-0 in the decider.
Ostapenko responded to Williams’ surge with one of her own. From 2-0 down, Ostapenko responded with an immediate break to end Williams’ six-game run.
After coming through a pressure-filled service game to save break point and hold to 3-3, Ostapenko broke Williams again to lead 4-3 and closed out the victory with her third break of the final set to close out the win after 2 hours and 26 minutes.
