Britain’s Jodie Burrage made it into her first WTA 500 quarter-final with a win over lucky loser Jaqueline Cristian at the Upper Austria Ladies Linz on Wednesday, but Katie Boulter narrowly lost to Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, bringing her run in Austria to an end in the Last 16.
“The first set, it went pretty well. The second set, I felt so much tiredness and like I was already in bed. The third set, I don’t know. I just let it go. It was gonna be what it was gonna be. I’m super happy that I could manage some small things… I’m feeling pretty well. The body is already recovered from the previous nine matches [in Melbourne]. It’s just I do feel the adaptation, like I want to go to sleep. I’m sure tomorrow it’s gonna be much better. Dayana Yastremska
Burrage, the British No 2, beat Romania’s Cristian, 6-3 7-6(5), and will play either top seed Jelena Ostapenko from Latvia or Denmark’s Clara Tauson in the Last 8 on Friday.
Boulter, the British No 1, suffered a 7-6(2) 6-4 defeat at the hands of Pavlyuchenkova in which the Brit lost the first-set breaker before the Russian finally broke her in the 9th game of the second, and then served out the match after an hour and 37 minutes.
Having risen to No 45 in the world in the live WTA rankings, a career high for the 27-year-old, Boulter previously demolished 6th seed Jasmine Paolini from Italy, 6-2 6-2, on Monday.
She has shown some stellar form to start 2023, notching a number of wins at the United Cup and Adelaide International before the Australian Open, where she made the 2nd-round and fell to eventual runner-up Zheng Qinwen from China.
24-year old Burrage came through two qualifying rounds and upset 7th-seeded Varvara Gracheva from France in the 1st-round of the main draw before facing Cristian.
Burrage maintained her fine form by taking the opening set against Cristian in 34 minutes after twice breaking the Romanian’s serve.
Cristian was looking at defeat at 3-5 down in the second set, but managed to break Burrage’s serve for the first time to force a tiebreak.
Burrage held her nerve and converted a 3rd match point, to not only book a quarter-final spot but also a provisional world ranking inside the Top 90.
Dayana Yastremska beat Erika Andreeva in Linz, continuing her hot start to the year
WTAtennis.com
Meanwhile, seeded Russians Ekaterina Alexandrova (2) and Anastasia Potapova (5) cruised on in straight sets, advancing with a 6-3 6-0 win over qualifiers Jule Niemeier from Germany and Italy’s Sara Errani, 6-4 6-3, respectively.
In the quarters, Alexandrova awaits the winner of the 2nd-round match between Potapova and Italian Elizabetta Cocciaretto, who play on Thursday.
Eighth-seeded Petra Martic from Croatia, though, was upset by Czech Katerina Siniakova, 4-6 6-3 7-5, in her opening match on Wednesday. Sinaikova takes on Clara Burel from France in round 2.
Another 1st-round winner was Ukraine’s Dayana Yastremska, who fought off a strong challenge from Russia’s Erika Andreeva, 7-6(4) 3-6 6-2, and will play Donna Vekic, the 3rd seed from Croatia, for a place in the Last 8.
The Australian Open semi-finalist Dayana Yastremska overcame jet-lag to continue her strong start to 2024, defeating the qualifier after 2 hours and 25 minutes on court.
The Ukrainian improves to 11-2 overall this year, and is a perfect 5-0 in deciding sets.
Less than a week ago, Yastremska was competing in her first Grand Slam semi-final in Melbourne.
“The first set, it went pretty well. The second set, I felt so much tiredness and like I was already in bed,” Yastremska said. “The third set, I don’t know. I just let it go. It was gonna be what it was gonna be. I’m super happy that I could manage some small things.
“I’m feeling pretty well. The body is already recovered from the previous nine matches [in Melbourne]. It’s just I do feel the adaptation, like I want to go to sleep. I’m sure tomorrow it’s gonna be much better.”
No 29-ranked Yastremska took a wild-card into the Linz main draw, and, after an early exchange of breaks was steady on serve in the first set before raising her level in the tiebreak, but she lost control of the second from 2-0 up, with the 19-year-old Andreeva beginning to deploy the drop-shot to superb effect.
The Russian was the first to strike in the decider, breaking for 2-1, prompting Yastremska to regain her focus and rattle off the last 5 games in a row, finishing with a tally of 38 winners to 47 unforced errors.
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