Ostapenko, who is ranked 11th in the WTA and placed eighth in the tournament, lost 6-2, 2-6, 2-6 to Armenian tennis player Elina Avanesyan (60th WTA).
Ostapenko started the match on serve, winning the first two games.
The non-serving tennis players won the next four matches, the first racket of Latvia holding the advantage – 4-2.
In the eighth game, Ostapenko reached 6-2 with the first set point.
The athlete from Latvia also started the second set with a serve, but Avanesjana got ahead for the first time in the match with the fourth break point – 1-0.
In the next two games, the athletes exchanged service games that the opponent won, but in the seventh game, the Armenian athlete used the first of two break points, gaining a 5- 2.
The Armenian ended the set with the second of three set points.
Ostapenko started the third set with her serve and lost three games in a row.
The Latvian tennis player managed to win the fourth game, serving for the Armenian, but lost the next two, ending up on the losing side 1-5.
Only one game was played. In the eighth game, Avanesian scored two match points in a row, realizing the second one.
Ostapenko collected more passable serves (2:1), but also more double faults (7:3).
The Armenian served more accurately, hitting 70.8% of her first serves on the court, while Ostapenko only succeeded 55.3% of the time.
Although the Latvian tennis player had an excellent percentage of used break points (6/7 or 85.7%), she gave more such opportunities to her opponent (8/13 or 61.5%).
During the match, Ostapenko won 65 of 141 hands.
Ostapenko was exempt from the first match, but Avanesian, who entered the main tournament as a lucky loser, defeated Canadian Bianca Andreska (WTA 166) 6-4, 7-5 in the first round.
The two tennis players had met once on court before, with Ostapenko winning in three sets in the second round of the 2023 US Open.
The Latvian tennis player has won two “WTA 500” series tournament titles this season and has a 31-17 win-loss record, while Avanesjana, who has not won a major tournament in her career, has 25 out out of 42 games to win. Avanesyan, who was born in Russia, is playing her first tournament as an Armenian athlete in Cincinnati.
The winner of the match will meet Russian Lyudmila Samsonova (WTA 17th) or Polish tennis player Magda Linet (WTA 43rd) in the round of 16.
It was already reported that, in the doubles competition, Ostapenko reached the round of 16 in a pair with the Ukrainian Lyudmila Kichenok.
The tournament in Cincinnati will be held on hard courts until August 19.
2024-08-15 19:34:47
#Ostapenko #lost #Cincinnati #WTA #Series #tournament
