Aliaksandra Sasnovich upset number 1 seed and defending champion Elina Svitolina 6-4 0-6 6-3 to reach the quarter final at the WTA Premier tournament in Brisbane.
Svitolina beat Sasnovich 6-1 6-2 in the final of the 2018 Brisbane International. Twelve months later Sasnovich took the re-match beating world number 4 player Svitolina in three sets.
Svitolina saved five break points to hold her serve in the opening game. Sasnovich drew the first blood in the third game, but Svitolina broke back in the 6th game. Sasnovich took another break in the 10th game at love to win the first set 6-4.
Svitolina got an early brek in the second game and cruised through to a bagel win in the second set with twomore breaks in the second and fourth games forcing the match to the third set.
Sasnovich got a break lead in the third game of the decisive set to take a 3-1 lead. The player from Belarus held serve with a backhand winner moving to within a game of winning the match. Sasnovich came back from 0-40 down, when she was serving for the win, and closed it out with a break on her first match point in the ninth game.
“It was a really tough match. From my perspective, the first set was really good but the second not so good”,said Sasnovich.
Estonia’s Anett Kontaveit upset 2011 Brisbane champion and two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova 7-5 7-6 (7-1) after 1 hour and 38 minutes. The Estonian player reached her career-high of world number 20 at the end of the 2018 season.
Kontaveit started her season with a straight-set win over Carla Suarez Navarro. Kvitova did not recover from her match against Danielle Collins, where she came back from one set down in her 6-7 (6-8) 7-6 (8-6) 6-3.
The first set went on serve in the first 10 games before Kontaveit got the first break in the 11th game to take a 6-5 lead. Kontaveit served out in the 12th game to clinch the first set 7-5. Kvitova got an early break at the start of the second set. Kontaveit broke straight back to draw level to 2-2. Kvitova broke again to open up a 4-2 lead and held serve at love. Kontaveit pulled the break back in the ninth game and held serve at deuce to draw level to 5-5. Both players held their service games en route to the tie-break. Kontaveit dropped just one point to win the tie-break 7-1 clinching her ninth win against a top-ten player.
Kontaveit will face Tesla Tsurenko, who beat Kimberly Birrell iin straight sets. Tsurenko beat Kontaveit in Guangzhou 2016, but the Estonian player took a re.match against the Ukrainian player in s’Hertogenbosch semifinal in 2017 en route to winning her first career title.
Former Brisbane champion Karolina Pliskova beat qualifier Marie Bouzkova 7-5 6-2 setting up a match against Alja Tomljanovic, who upset Johanna Konta 6-2 7-6 (7-2). Konta broke serve in the 11th game to take a 6-5 lead. Tomljanovic broke straight back to force the second set to the tie-break, where Tomljanovic cruised through to 7-2.
Donna Vekic overcame number 6 seed Kiki Bertens 7-6 (7-5) 1-6 7-5. Anastasja Sevastova reeled off ten consecutive games from 2-2 in the first set to beat Harriet Dart 6-2 6-0 setting up a quarter final against British qualifier Harriet Dart 6-2 6-0.
