Australia’s Astra Sharma has reached her second WTA level final after a 7-6(5), 6-1 victory against Colombia’s María Camila Osorio Serrano in the WTA 250 in Charleston.

In 2019 Sharma lost the equivalent of a WTA 250 Bogota final against USA’s Amanda Anisimova. In the final she will face the no. 1 seed Ons Jabeur from Tunisia.

“I watched [Jabeur] a little bit today,” Sharma said. “She’s obviously playing really well. I’m really excited. I’ve never played her. I can’t wait to get out there. I’m playing really well and it will be fun to match up and see how I go.”

Osorio Serrano went into this week after winning a title in Bogota just last week, her first.

The Colombian, a former world no. 1 junior took the opening game to love.

Sharma answered that with a fairly convincing opening service game herself.

In the six game Sharma found herself facing three break points. She was not able to save one of them and fell behind 4-2.

Sharma would immediately break back thanks to three unforced errors from her opponent.

Down 5-6 in the first set, Sharma saved four set points to force a tiebreaker. When Osorio hit a forehand into the net, she converted her first and only set point.

The first break point was setup for Osorio when Sharma hit a mid court drive into the net. She would save it with a great backhand volley.

The next break point came after Sharma hit a loopy volley onto the baseline which sat up for her opponent, The Colombian hit a great passing shot. A powerful forehand forced an error to save another set point.

Again an unforced error brought up the third set point. A shot hit wide by Osorio saw that go begging. A Sharma double fault presented another set point, only to again see a big forehand save it.

After a marathon game, Sharma would hold to send the set to a tie breaker.

Osorio was out to 4-2 in the breaker before Sharma won five of the next six points.

In the second set Osorio won the first game before Sharma won the next six to claim the match.

“In the tiebreak, I thought I did a good job, holding my nerve, weathering the storm of her good shots,” Sharma said. “I thought she’s such a clean ball-striker, such a tough opponent that I was mentally prepared for her to hit those. I tried my best to beat her with my physicality, wear her down.”

Australia’s Astra Sharma has come back well after her amazing “stolen game” incident in Bogota.

Sharma, Australia’s world no. 165 faced USA’s world no. 82 Madison Brengle at the Charleston WTA 250 clay court event.

In a second round match Brengle, Sharma has recovered from 1-4 down in the third set to win the match.

She held match point at 6-5, 40-15 before serving a double fault. In the next point Sharma held her nerve and hit some big shots to claim the match, 6-4, 4-6, 7-5 to move into the Quarterfinals.

Brengle had come back from a set and 1-4 down in the second set to take that 6-4 and see the match into a deciding third set.

Sharma said she was glad she changed her tactics in the third set. Going into the net more often was key to her win.

Brengle was serving at a higher percentage with 78% of first serves going into play, Sharma served at 66%.

Sharma hit 33 winners to 17 and had 44 unforced errors to 32 by Brengle.

There were a lot of breaks of serve. Sharma converting 6 from 21 break points with Brengle having five from eight.

Australia’s Astra Sharma has seen a 0-40 lead turn into a 30-15 advantage to her opponent after an officiating error by Colombian umpire Luis David Armenta Castro.

 

Giulia Gatto-Monticone from Italy was serving at 4-6, 7-5, 1-1 and lost the first point after double-faulting.

The next point saw the Italian hit into the net for 0-30. The next point saw Gatto-Monticone hit just long. The shot was close enough for the umpire to get out of his chair to inspect the mark.

The score should have been 0-40. After he went back to his chair he called the score at 30-15.

The next point saw Sharma hit into the net and the score should have been 15-40. Instead he called 40-15.

The next point was again a long shot over the baseline by Gatto-Monticone and instead of it being the game to Sharma the umpire called 40-30.

Sharma then hit well long and the umpire called game to Gatto-Monticone.

The game was being called on WTA TV and the commentator was pointing out an error in the score.
Also the on-screen score had moved to 0-40 and then was not updated after that.

Sharma then questioned the umpire regarding the score as she didn’t think it was correct.

They discussed how the points had ended, Sharma asked for a linesperson to have an input however the umpire said they had rotated away from the court.

The tournament supervisor was also called to the court but no change was made to correct the score.

Gatto-Monticone should have been down a break at 2-1 with Sharma to serve, instead she was up 2-1.

You have to wonder what the umpire was doing. From what I understand the scores shown onscreen are taken from the data entered by the umpire. Why did the score stop on 0-40?

Here is Sharma’s recollection of the incident as published on Twitter.

To people saying I should have known the score, here is what happened for me:
1) at 40-15 I thought I had won the game but when I asked the umpire he said no. I thought I miscounted since I do sometimes lose track of the score when I’m so focused, so I usually trust the ump 1/6

2) I was disoriented and confused, trying to remember what points I had won, so I mistakenly thought he was saying it was 40-30 to me, which I thought was OK, I probably miscounted one point.
3) after he called game to my opponent the next point, I knew something was wrong 2/6
I knew I hadn’t lost that many points. I tried to argue with him and he said that he couldn’t remember how the points went but neither could I, so there’s nothing he could do. 3/6
4) I could only recall that she missed twice long. Both he and my opponent then said I had supposedly missed 2 bh returns and a fh miss. I couldn’t defend myself because I want able to tell them how I won the rest of my points 4/6
5) I knew something was wrong so I asked for video replay, he said there was none. I asked to speak to the linesumpire who had called my opponents misses. He said they had rotated out and he couldn’t get them back. He pressured me saying I cannot delay play if I had no proof 5/6
6) I was starting to feel crazy and doubt myself because both of them seemed to recall things I could not. I didnt know what to do, all I could tell a supervisor was that I thought I won the game but my proof was she missed long twice 6/6

After that incident Gatto-Monticone ran away with the set to claim a 4-6, 7-5, 6-1 victory.

The Italian played dumb when the discussion took place over the score dispute.

 

 

Australia’s Astra Sharma had advanced through qualifying into the main draw at the WTA 250 tournament in Guadalajara, Mexico.

Sharma defeated Britain’s Harriet Dart in round two qualifying to reach the main draw. The pair then found themselves facing each other in the opening round after Dart was a lucky loser.

The world no. 137 defeated Dart for a second time to advance to the second round. The score was 2-6, 6-2, 7-6(2).

Sharma then defeated rising star, Canada’s Leylah Fernandez the no. 7 seed and world no. 87. The score was 6-4, 6-4.

In the third round it was Spain’s no. 4 seed Sara Sorribes Tormo that was too good for Sharma, taking the match 6-3, 6-3 in 1 hour 23 minutes.

Sharma is expected to jump 10 places to no. 127 in the rankings. Her career high ranking is no. 85.