Kozlova upsets holder Ostapenko in French Open 1st round
Monday - May 28, 2018 12:38 pm ,
Category : SPORTS
Paris May 28 (IANS) Ukraine s Kateryna Kozlova has knocked out defending champion Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia 7-5 6-3 in the first round of the French Open a Grand Slam clay court tennis event.
Ostapenko committed an eyebrow-raising 48 unforced errors including 13 double faults more than double her 22 winners during the 94-minute encounter on Sunday reports Efe.
The 20-year-old Ostapenko thus became the first French Open defending champion to be ousted in the first round since 2005 and the second in the Open Era following Russia s Anastasia Myskina.
Making her second appearence at the Roland Garros main draw Kozlova went ahead 2-1 in the first set as her rival struggled with her service.
A couple of games later Ostapenko seemed to have restored order breaking her rival s serve for 4-4.
Both players then traded service breaks but Kozlova got the decisive one to take a 6-5 advantage and held her next serve to seal the first set.
Neither player could hold her first two service games in the second set and they wound up tied at 3-3.
It was then that Kozlova won three consecutive games to earn her third win over the Latvian player in as many career matches.
In her first second-round appearance at Roland Garros Kozlova will play either Katerina Siniakova of the Czech Republic or Victoria Azarenka of Belarus.
--IANS tri/
Ostapenko committed an eyebrow-raising 48 unforced errors including 13 double faults more than double her 22 winners during the 94-minute encounter on Sunday reports Efe.
The 20-year-old Ostapenko thus became the first French Open defending champion to be ousted in the first round since 2005 and the second in the Open Era following Russia s Anastasia Myskina.
Making her second appearence at the Roland Garros main draw Kozlova went ahead 2-1 in the first set as her rival struggled with her service.
A couple of games later Ostapenko seemed to have restored order breaking her rival s serve for 4-4.
Both players then traded service breaks but Kozlova got the decisive one to take a 6-5 advantage and held her next serve to seal the first set.
Neither player could hold her first two service games in the second set and they wound up tied at 3-3.
It was then that Kozlova won three consecutive games to earn her third win over the Latvian player in as many career matches.
In her first second-round appearance at Roland Garros Kozlova will play either Katerina Siniakova of the Czech Republic or Victoria Azarenka of Belarus.
--IANS tri/
