Top seed Patricia Mayr-Achleitner of Austria was knocked out by compatriot Barbara Haas in the quarterfinals of the QNet Open $50,000 ITF women’s tennis tournament at the DLTA Complex on Thursday.
Barbara, 10 years younger to Patricia and also her practice partner here, won a tense encounter 6-3, 7-6(3). Interestingly, this is the 18-year-old’s first-ever participation in an ITF $50,000 event.
Barbara dropped just three points as she broke Patricia thrice to take a 5-0 lead in the first set. The teenager later admitted that she felt the pressure whenever she led her more established opponent. This was evident as Patricia reduced the deficit to 3-5. In fact, she had the chance to make it 4-5 on serve, having already saved five set points. But, Barbara fought back and converted her sixth set point.
The second set was more evenly contested. Patricia broke her opponent’s serve twice to take the lead but was pulled back in the following games. Barbara remained composed and even had three match-points in Patricia’s last two service games of the set. However, those opportunities were missed as the top seed went 3-1 up in the tiebreak. Barbara’s response was fantastic as she won the next six points to set up a meeting with seventh seed Elise Mertens.
The Belgian, who shocked third seed Marina Melnikova 3-6, 7-5, 6-2, will play her first semifinal at this level, like Barbara and Ivana Jorovic.
Jorovic will meet second seed Anastasiya Vasylyeva in the other semifinal.
In doubles, Melnikova teamed up with her singles conqueror Mertens to seal a spot in Friday’s final.
The Belgian-Russian duo will meet the Chinese pair of Chang Liu and Jia-Jing Lu.
The results:
Singles: Quarterfinals: Barbara Haas (Aut) bt Patricia Mayr-Achleitner (Aut) 6-3, 7-6(3); Elise Mertens (Bel) bt Marina Melnikova (Rus) 3-6, 7-5, 6-2; Ivana Jorovic (Srb) bt Nicha Lertpitaksinchai (Tha) 7-6(3), 6-0; Anastasiya Vasylyeva (Ukr) bt Sabina Sharipova (Uzb) 6-3, 6-4.
Doubles: Semifinals: Chang Liu & Jia-Jing Lu (Chn) bt Nicha Lertpitaksinchai & Peangtarn Plipuech (Tha) 1-6, 6-4, 10-6; Marina Melnikova (Rus) & Elise Mertens (Bel) bt Margarita Lazareva (Rus) & Anastasiya Vasylyeva (Ukr) 6-4, 6-3.
