Croatia’s Petra Martić qualified to the second week of the Roland Garros after she beat Anastasia Sevastova, ranked 19th on the WTA Ranking List 6-1,6-1.
The first week of the second Grand Slam tournament is over, and after a thrilling win by Petra Martić on June 4, 2017, Croatia will have two players in the 1/8-finals, as Marin Čilić qualified there yesterday.
Petra Martić, the 26-year-old from Split, returned from injury just a couple of months ago after she was out of the tour for more than nine months. She is playing the best tennis of her life, and it surprised her fans, but also herself:
“Due to the back injury, I was out for almost ten months, and just two months after my comeback, I am in the 1/8-finals of the Grand Slam. There were moments, while I struggled with injuries, where I doubted if I’d ever play again, I prayed for a second chance. And I got it.”
The question was: What is her secret? Petra replied with a smile: “The secret? I don’t know. Maybe it is because of a slightly different approach to the game; I still get nervous before the match, but there is no more stress on the court, I just get out there and enjoy.”
Today, Petra played the perfect match; she did not allow the opponent a single break point and managed to break the serve five times. It took just 49 minutes of play for the 290th player on the WTA List to overcome the 19th.
Tomorrow, Petra will face the sixth-ranked Ukrainian, Elina Svitolina, while Marin Čilić’s opponent will be the South-African player, Kevin Anderson.
