September 13, 2019 – Croatian tennis player Petra Martic advanced to the semifinal of the WTA tournament in Zhengzhou, beating Belarusian Arina Sabalenka 7:5, 5:7, 6:4 in the quarterfinal after two hours and 41 minutes of play.
HRT reports that this was the second encounter between Martic and Sabalenkao, and revenge for Martic after losing to the Belarusian player at the start of the tournament in Cincinnati one month ago.
In the first set, Martic lost her break advantage twice, but when she took Sabalenka’s serve for the 6:5 lead for the third time, she managed to win the first set of the match without losing a point.
Martic had the first break in the second set as well, but Sabalenka turned the score to 4:2 in her favor. At 5:2 for Sabalenka, Martic was able to save three set points, equalized at 5:5, and had a break point for a 6:5 lead, which she, unfortunately, did not use. Martic eventually failed to win the tie-break, and Sabalenka used her ninth set point to level the score.
Until the 4:4 result in the third set, neither player had the chance to break. However, Martic stole Sabalenka’s serve and found herself in the situation to serve for the match. Sabalenka reached 15:40 but did not use either of her two break points, and Martic scored the last four points in the duel for the victory.
In the semifinal, Martic will play against the winner of the match between France’s Kristina Mladenovic and Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina.
To read more about sport in Croatia, follow TCN’s dedicated page.
