Maria Arkhipova V Andrea Petkovic

It was always going to be a tough match for Maria Arkhipova. Andrea Petkovic is a hard player to play against, with a strong backhand and equally dangerous forehand. You sensed though from the moment the match started that perhaps Maria would be able to pull out all the stops to turn all her hard work and effort into a victory.

The 1^st set as predicted was a tightly fought affair, the lead in games changed hands many times with a high percentage of games going to deuce. At 5-5 with both players finding the lines and baseline regularly it seemed as though a tie break would be the only way to separate them. So it proved, with Maria hitting some huge winners at the start of the tie break she raced away to a 7-2 set win, which she thoroughly deserved.

Maria now needed to repeat that same level of play in the 2^nd set in order to wrap this match up. Andrea of course had other ideas and she upped the level of her play to race away to a commanding 2^nd set lead. After just 30 minutes the 2^nd set was wrapped up by Andrea and she ran away a 6-2 winner.

The all important 3^rd set followed the same pattern as the 1^st, some incredible tennis from both women saw the scores remain tied up to 6-6. The energy level and determination to run down all manner of shots was amazing to watch and the crowd steadily grew around the court. Neither player deserved to lose this one, so perhaps it was fitting that the outcome of the match was truly amazing. Ending on one of the longest tie breaks I have ever witnessed.

Maria Arkhipova again played the better tennis at the start of the tie break. She managed to gain an incredible 5 match points at 6-2 but Petkovic fought back tremendously well and managed to claw her way back to 6-6. From this point on both players were inseparable, from 6-6 the score progressed to 10-10 where once again Maria had another set of match points but yet again after 15 plus shots in a rally Andrea kept herself in the match with some great counter attacking tennis.

Eventually though Maria managed to get around the Petkovic defence to smash her way to a 15-13 final set win!

An amazing match by two players who gave everything they had to win. They did the ITF proud.

 Well Done Maria