Porsche Tennis Grand Prix: Ashleigh Barty celebrates comeback victory against Pliskova
The world number one Ashleigh Barty just pulled her head out of the loop and turned an almost lost match against Karolina Pliskova.
by Florian Goosmann
last edit: Apr 23, 2021, 04:27 pm
It was 2: 6, 6: 1 and 7: 5 in the first quarter-finals on Friday for the Stuttgart premier participant - after a 3: 5 deficit in the third set.
Pliskova, the ninth in the world rankings, had a strong start into the match and had perhaps delivered her best set of the year so far - 6: 2 was the logical result after just under half an hour. At the beginning of the second round, however, Barty picked up and made ten of the first eleven points, but the Czech woman's mistakes increased. Also symptomatic of the set ball to equalize: Pliskova did not get a hit ball and rolled the last attempt into the net. Barty, meanwhile, played himself in swing, always shoving up the space with the deep slice.
It wouldn't have been surprising if things had gone quickly after losing the second round. But Pliskova rallied, found the good mixture of controlled offensive again on the fast Stuttgart sand, which promotes her flat game and strong serves, it was not for nothing that she won the tournament in 2018 . An early break to 2: 1 and the defense of three breakballs in the subsequent service game initially brought them onto the road to victory. Critical at 4: 3 and 30:30, when referee Kader Nouni saw a ball just out of bounds, the equalizer followed immediately at break ball when the Czech hit a forehand on the line, which was initially out of bounds, but Nouni was on the Line was scored.
The subsequent service game was no less exciting: Pliskova turned a 0:30, Barty still got a total of five breakballs, but four times Pliskova helped a strong first service. On the fifth occasion, however, she rushed too badly - compensation. Barty now had the upper hand mentally, held to zero and in the end used her second match point.
Barty with many options
"An unbelievable match", she explained in the on-court interview, she collects new information day after day on the Stuttgart sand, which is different inside the hall than outside. For Barty, with the nasty slice and good serves, certainly not more disadvantageous.
"I had a lot of opportunities myself, but Karolina played so well in the critical situations", was how she judged the entertaining match and, above all, her yield of break chances: she had 19 pieces, she was only able to use 5.
Barty is now waiting for the winner of the game between Elina Svitolina and Petra Kvitova.
For Pliskova the elimination shouldn't be too bitter, she played her strongest match of the year so far - in the end 39 mistakes were a bit too many. Especially since Barty (28 unforced mistakes) with 25 winners to 16 also had the significantly better record here.
Here the single tableau in Stuttgart
Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart: players, prize money, draw, TV
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