By Alberto Amalfi | Tuesday, February 25, 2020
Teenager Dayana Yastremska hit 13 aces surprising Australian Open champion Sofia Kenin 6-3, 7-6(4) to earn her fourth Top 20 win of the year in Doha.
Photo credit: Mark Peterson/Corleve
Dayana Yastremska hasn’t yet cracked the Top 20, but the 19-year-old Yastremska sure knows how to downsize the elite.
Yastremska pumped 13 aces and saved four of six break points surprising Australian Open champion Sofia Kenin 6-3, 7-6(4) in Doha.
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"Credits to her, she played well, came up with some good shots at those important moments," said Kenin after suffering her third consecutive defeat. "She just played better at important moments and I just made too many unforced errors. I just felt pretty flat-footed the whole match."
World No. 1 Ashleigh Barty lost to Kenin at the Australian Open. Today, Barty broke five times bouncing German Laura Siegemund 6-3, 6-2.
Yulia Putintseva followed dumping defending Doha champion Elise Mertens out of the field with a 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 victory. The two-hour conquest sends Putintseva into the round of 16 against Belinda Bencic.
The fourth-seeded Swiss squeezed out a 6-4, 4-6, 7-6(4) win over Veronika Kudermetova.
It is Yastremska’s fourth Top 20 win of the season and spoils the prospect of an Australian Open final rematch between Kenin and Garbiñe Muguruza in the desert.
The 11th-seeded Muguruza takes on Aussie Ajla Tomljanovic with the winner facing Yastremska for a spot in the Qatar Total Open quarterfinals.
It’s the third straight loss for Kenin, who fell in Fed Cup to former French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko and bowed to red-hot Elena Rybakina in a three-set Dubai loss last week.
The 21-year-old Kenin concedes managing the expectations that come from winning her maiden major in Melbourne has been a challenge.
“That's what I got to figure out how to manage the expectations and people talking from the outside,” Kenin told the media in Doha. “But before Australia and everything obviously there was different kind of pressure, but I did have like expectations, I was hard on myself.
“I want to do well in every tournament, so it's not a surprise. And nothing's changed from my side the way I am, because I hate losing and, yeah, you know I hate losing.”
The Yastremska serve was the key stroke today.
The world No. 25 broke at love in the fourth game then confirmed for a 4-1 lead. Driving her serve down the T, Yastremska smacked an ace serving out the first set at love.
Yastremska served out first set at love Yastremska hit seven aces including ace set point to seal first set at love. Kenin burst out to a 3-0 second set lead then took a medical timeout to have her right thumb taped up. Blazing a backhand return down the line, the Ukrainian broke back for 2-3 igniting a five-game surge.
Serving for match at 5-4, Yastremska double faulted twice, including on break point, gifting the break back.
Still, the teenager kept calm in the tie breaker.
Yastremska exploited three errors from a jittery Kenin building a 4-1 lead. A jolting second serve down the T extended the lead to 5-2 then a Yastremska return crashed into the tape and crawled over giving her four match points.
On her third match point, Yastremska hammered a backhand straight down the middle that handcuffed the Melbourne champion to end it in 95 minutes. It was Yastremska’s second win in three meetings vs. Kenin.
Earlier, Petra Kvitova cruised through seven straight games closing a 4-6, 6-3, 6-0 conquest of Carla Suarez Navarro in a clash of former Doha champions. Kvitova saved two of three break points beating the Spaniard for the seventh time in 13 meetings.
The eighth-seeded Kvitova will play Ostapenko in a round of 16 battle of Grand Slam champions. Ostapenko converted five of 18 break points and did not drop serve blasting Barbora Strycova 6-1, 6-2 in 78 minutes.
Aryna Sabalenka slashed 38 winners edging Australian Open quarterfinalist Anett Kontaveit 7-5, 2-6, 7-5 in a punishing two hour, 15-minute victory.
"Especially in this conditions it was really, really tough to play," Sabalenka said afterward. "I always remember my loss in Australian Open. It was a huge challenge to me to win in these conditions, especially against her. She’s a big fighter, she was fighting to the end."
The ninth-seeded Sabalenka will play either 15th-seeded Maria Sakkari or Czech qualifier Tereza Martincova in the round of 16.