Australia’s Sam Stosur took on the defending champion Anastasija Sevastova in the second semifinal of the Mallorca tournament. Sevastova had recovered well from 3-6, 0-3 to defeat Australia’s Ajla Tomljanovic in the quarterfinals.
Two break points were earned by Sevestova in the third game of the opening set before Stosur got to deuce then an error game Sevostova her third break point which was converted after Stosur hit into the net. Sevestova was now leading 2-1.
Stosur won the opening point of the next service game with two of the ugliest volleys you could see, she mishit both and they looped high and landed on the baseline, the second saw Sevestova hit the ball into the net.
Back-to-back errors from Sevestova when the score was 30-30 saw Stosur break back immediately.
With the score at 3-3 and 15-15 Stosur missed a sitter with the ball bouncing high a metre from the net, she hit long, then two badly mistimed shots saw Stosur give up the break for Sevestova to go ahead 4-3.
Stosur got the match back on serve with a sharply angled forehand that her opponent hit long. That made it four breaks of serve in the first eight games.
The Australian jumped out to a 5-4 lead after holding serve, serving and volleying to close out the game. Sevestova served well to even the score at 5-5.
The unforced errors were mounting, and that combined with Stosur struggling to land a first serve saw Sevestova earn a breakpoint, however, she was not able to convert. Then Stosur landed a well placed first serve to get ad, before Sevestova hit long to take Stosur to 6-5. After Sevestova held serve the players entered a tiebreaker.
Stosur opened the serving but lost the first point with a badly mistimed forehand that sailed well long. Sevestova hit a brilliant wide backhand slice to force an error from Stosur to take a 2-0, an unforced error from Stosur and it was 3-0, then a missed lob retrieval saw Sevestova at 4-0, then another unforced error from Stosur took in to 5-0, before a wide serve and a backhand down the line gave Sevestova 6 set points to win her first tiebreak from seven this year.
A big down the line forehand from Stosur saved one, but then on the next point Stosur tried to cut a volley too fine and the ball bounced on her side of the court.
After taking a double break, Sevestova was serving for a spot in the final and won to love to win the the match 7-6, 6-1. The win took her into her third straight final in this tournament.
The telling stat in the match was 28 unforced errors from Stosur.
