Another women's seed fell today in the form of Czech player Lucie Safarova as Ukraine's Lesia Tsurenko showcased a tremendous performance to take out her opponent. Tsurenko remained in control of the majority of the match and never let the sixth seed make a comeback. Here is a deeper look at what happened during the straight set victory.
Tsurenko edges rollercoaster set
It was the Czech who began proceedings with a strong service game, and Tsurenko responded with an even better one, holding it to love. Safarova faltered in the third game, finding herself going from 40-15 to deuce and down a break point in favor of Tsurenko, but the sixth seed held her nerve to pull through. This form from the Czech went into Tsurenko’s next service game as the former created two break point opportunities, but the Ukrainian served beautifully to get herself out of danger. This unnerved the Czech, who was broken in the next game. The key point here was Safarova’s climbing unforced error count, which reached a total of fifteen by the end of the set.
Tsurenko began to play some perfect tennis, consolidating her next service game and breaking the Czech again to race to a 5-2 lead. The Ukrainian was in complete control, but Safarova took some of the momentum away by swinging freely and finally starting to win the longer rallies. She managed to break back her opponent once and hold her serve to love in the next game, but Tsurenko was able to close out the set due to the double break. She regained her confidence as she won the set 6-4.
Tsurenko dominates
Despite the makings of a momentum swing through the semi-comeback in the first set, Safarova found herself faltering in her very first service game in the next set, going down 0-40 and getting broken. Tsurenko consolidated to run away with a 2-0 lead, not giving her opponent any room to breathe. This affected Safarova’s game even further as she got broken once again and her unforced errors continued to leak. It was uncharacteristic to find her power hitting going awry and watching her miss some extremely easy forehands and backhands, and the Ukrainian successfully took advantage of the situation.
Tsurenko only hit three winners in the second set, but showcased some exquisite defending ability as she managed to hold two of her next service games despite going to deuce. Safarova only held her serve once in this set, and was down three match points in her final service game. She saved the three points emphatically, but could not make any form of a comeback as Tsurenko broke her at advantage once again to take the final set 6-1, consequently winning the match.
The Ukrainian showed a powerful and tactical performance to take out yet another women's seed in the US Open draw. She can be extremely pleased with her victory as she goes into the second round to play Varvara Lepchenko.