Andrea Petkovic pulled one of the classic escapes of the 2015 season on Wednesday at the BNP Paribas Fortis Diamond Games, saving eight match points in the 12th game of the second set against Belgian Alison Van Uytvanck en route to a 6-7(7), 7-6(5), 6-2 victory.
This was not a nervy choke job by the 20-year-old Uytvanck by any means. Petkovic hit five winners and forced two errors on the eight match points, and received only one error from the Belgian.
After becoming upset with a very bad call that went against her in the 10th game of the second set, Petkovic stiffened her resolve and put forth a stunning display of grace under pressure to ward off a very strong opponent who was playing with nothing to lose in front of her home crowd.
After saving the match points, Petkovic would reel off the last four points of the second set tiebreaker to take the set.
In the third set, Petkovic took the first four games before Van Uytvanck mounted a brief rally to draw closer, but the German would sear a backhand winner on her fourth match point to close the affair.
“I don’t even know what to say,” said Petkovic. “I just played five hours and 20 minutes in Fed Cup on Saturday and Sunday, and now I played three hours and 19 [here]. I guess that’s just my type of game, I don’t know.”
In case you missed the match, here are all eight match points in short form, below: