Tough Saturday for Markéta Vondroušová. Berlin tournament schedule makes up for lost day

Markéta Vondroušová is having a great season. Last year was negatively affected by health problems. This year, however, the twenty-three year old player has managed to climb up the rankings. She had a tough schedule today at the tournament in Berlin.

You would have to be a real nitpicker to find enough material for a negative assessment in Markéta Vondroušová’s results this year. Her most frequent tournament result is an eighth-place finish, the maximum is a semi-final in Linz. The overall record of 24:9 speaks in favour of the former world number 14.

After health problems last year, the Czech has dropped to the second hundred of the WTA rankings. Now she is climbing back up. She improves her current ranking of 53rd on the grass in Berlin, in case of today’s success, by almost twenty places.

Tough Saturday

Rainy weather kept the players off the courts on Friday, which is why the match of the Sokolov native was postponed to today. Her quarterfinal opponent was Sakkari of Greece. The semifinals are also scheduled for today, and to make matters worse Vondrousova has a doubles semifinal scheduled for today alongside Siniakova.

The singles semifinal against Sakkari was a repeat of their duel in Rome. There, the Czech won in two sets on clay. Given the better results on grass, today’s encounter started without a clear favourite.

Quarterfinal duel

The opening games went better for the Greek, who went up 2:0, but Vondrousova evened the pace. Both players served well and controlled the game on their serve. The set went to a tiebreak, the first of the tournament for the Greek player, and Vondroušová successfully took one shortened game.

In today’s match, the Czech was down 0:2 and, as she did at the start of the match, she was able to level the match again. And not only that. Vondroušová even won three set points. But Sakkari dominated the game in these crucial moments and finally took the first set for herself.

The second set was soon dominated by the higher ranked player. Sakkari was proving why she is the world number eight player. The Czech lost her serve early and played beyond the edge of risk for the rest of the match. This resulted in a large number of unforced errors and an early end to the match and Markéta Vondroušová’s singles performance.

Doubles semifinals

Together with Kateřina Siniaková, Markéta Vondroušová will now face a duel for the doubles final. Their opponents will be the American-Dutch pair Krawczyk and Schuurs. They have not lost a set in Berlin so far.

The Czechs have played very little together as a team so far. On the other hand, they have won all three matches they have played. After being eliminated from the singles, Markéta Vondroušová is eager to fight her way into the final doubles match.

Source: WTA, TennisPortal