Ostapenko dominates the third set and overcomes the second round of the Australian Open

Alon Ostapenko | Photo: Rob Prange/AFP7 via ZUMA Wire

The first racket of Latvian tennis Alon Ostapenko advanced to the third round of the Australian Open in Melbourne on Wednesday. Ostapenko (WTA 17th), who is seeded 17th in the tournament, beat Hungarian tennis player Anna Bondar WTA 81st 7-6 (7:5), 5-7, 6-0.

The match, which was supposed to start at 2 o’clock Latvian time on the sixth court, but which was postponed due to rain, was started by Ostapenko with a serve, both athletes celebrating victories in their service games until the fifth game. Before that, after 1-0 and 0:15 Ostapenko’s game was stopped due to rain. In the fifth game, Bondara used the first break point of the game, leading for the first time in the match with 3-2. In the very next game, she won two break points in a row, leveling the score (3-3) with a shot from the comfortable side across the court.

In the seventh game, Ostapenko allowed her opponent to take the lead again – 4:3, with three consecutive hits in the net, but lost the next game “dry”. The tenth game, when Bondara was serving, was already “dryly” won by the Latvian tennis player, who was also superior in the 11th game, reaching 6-5, but the winner of the set was determined in a tiebreak. Ostapenko was better at it at the beginning, who reached 3:1, but after a double fault on serve, Bondara was already in the lead with 5:4. The Hungarian immediately responded with the same, sending the ball into the net, and Ostapenko became the winner of the set.

In the first game of the second set, Ostapenko had two untapped break points to tie the game at 1-1 after two games. The tennis player receiving the serve won the next four games, and Ostapenko started the first of her service games with two double faults, her opponent using only the fourth break point, but lost the second game “dry”. In the following games, the opponents took advantage of their serve, until Ostapenko lost the 12th game without a single winning game, 5-7.

In the third set, however, Bondar’s strength was over, Ostapenko winning the first, third and fifth games with the first break point. In the sixth game, however, she had to play a break point with her own serve, and also managed to finish the match with the second match point. For entering the third round, the Latvian tennis player earned 130 world ranking points.

It has already been reported that the Latvian tennis player defeated the Ukrainian Dajana Jastremska (WTA 101) in the first round with 6-4, 6-2, but the Hungarian started the first “Grand Slam” of the season with a victory over Ana Bogdan (WTA 63) from Romania, being superior by 6-2, 2-6, 6-3.

The two tennis players had not met before on the court.

Last year at the Australian Open, Ostapenko reached the third round, her repeat best result in the first Grand Slam of the season, while Bondar reached the second round for the first time this year.

The first “Grand Slam” tournament of the 2023 season will be held in Melbourne on the hard surface until January 29.