Russian teenager Elena Rybakina saved a match point to take a thrilling 4-6 7-6 (8-6) 7-6 (7-5) win over world number 7 Caroline Garcia and advanced to her first WTA quarter final at the Ladies Trophy in St. Petersburg.
World Number 450 Rybakina followed up her first round win over Timea Bacsinszky with a dramatic win over Caroline Garcia after rallying from one set down.
Rybakina earned an early break in the first set. Garcia broke straight back in the next game. The French player got her second break in the seventh game in the only game which went at deuce and held on to her serve to clinch the opening set. Garcia made three unforced errors to 13 from Rybakina in the first ten games.
Garcia got the break in the ninth break to earn the chance to serve for the match. Rybakina broke back to stay in the match forcing the match to the tie-break.
The Russian teenager came back from 0-4 down in the second set tie-break by reeling off five consecutive points. She fended off a match point on her serve at 5-6 and won three consecutive points to seal the second set forcing the match to the decider. The 18-year-old player hit 15 winners to Garcia’s 8 in the second set.
Rybakina earned the break in the fifth game of the third set. As Rybakina was serving for the match at 5-4, she hit two forehand winners to come just two months away from the biggest win of her career. Garcia broke back and held her serve for 6-5. Rybakina held her serve to force the match to the tie-break.
Rybakina got a mini-break in the tie-break and won the final two games to seal the win after two hours and 27 minutes.
Rybakina will take on the winner of the match between Julia Goerges and Roberta Vinci in the next round.
Petra Kvitova bounced back from a first round defeat at the Australian Open against Andrea Petkovic with a 6-2 6-0 win over number 7 seed Elena Vesnina in just over one hour. The Russian player earned just one break point in the whole match.
Kvitova got an early break at 30 in the first game and held her serve at deuce after saving a break point chance to take a 2-0 lead. The Czech star held her next two service games and broke for the second time at 30 to race out to a 5-2 lead before serving out for the first set at love with an ace.
Kvitova went up a double break to race out to a 4-0 lead. She converted her sixth break point at deuce in hard-fought fifth game and served out for the win on her second match point.
Kvitova will take on Irina Camelia Begu in the second round. The Romanian player beat Andrea Petkovic in straight sets.
