Varvara Gracheva was off to do it again. On Wednesday, the Frenchwoman saved two match points before dominating (6-2, 3-6, 7-5) the Bulgarian Viktoriya Tomova in the first round. Thursday, she did the same, but despite three match points in her favor, the 94th in the world gave up, beaten in the tie-break of the third set (6-4, 4-6, 7-6 [6]) by Yuan Yue, 38th and impressive for several months. The 25-year-old Chinese even beat her soundly (6-4, 6-1) in Indian Wells at the beginning of March.
After two sets with a similar scenario, the third was interesting. Gracheva, trailing 3-0, had a double break behind, before quickly erasing one and a second at 5-4 for Yuan, who obtained two match points, brilliantly saved by the Frenchwoman with two shots winning rights.
Gracheva can blame herself
The latter had an opportunity to close the match at 6-5 in its favor but could do nothing on this backhand cross volley from Yuan, who then saved two more easily in the decisive game, on a big foul forehand and a double fault from the Frenchwoman, while she was trailing 6-4. Two points later, Yuan pocketed the victory after 2h47 of the match. She will be opposed to the American Sloane Stephens (39th), her doubles partner this week in Rouen.
2024-04-18 12:57:41
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