Andrea Petkovic of Germany overcame a battled set against young Japanese Nao Hibino to grant herself a huge chance to book a second round appearance at the Wimbledon Championships.
After losing the first set with a 6-3 scoreline, the German rallied back to take the second one 7-5 and was up two breaks to the Japanese before the rain forced to postpone the match to tomorrow.
The German is defending the third round reached last year, currently her best result at the All England Lawn and Croquet Club. Her best results at Grand Slam tournaments counts two quarterfinals and a semifinal, at the 2014 French Open.
Hibino is at her first appearance in the main draw on the grass major: last year she played in the qualifying draw, but lost in the second round to Anna Tatishvili. The 21-year old has won her first WTA main draw match in Tokyo in 2015 and gained her first WTA title in Tashkent three weeks later. She has yet to win a match in the main draw of a major tournament.
An important hold grants Hibino the first set
After a balanced kick-off, which saw both players hold their serve quite easily, the Japanese number two took the early control of the match. She pushed on Petkovic’s second serve in the fifth game and put pressure on the rally to convert her first break point of the set.
The German quickly recovered, as she broke her opponent back right away to level-off the game to a 3-all score.
She started the following game with a double-fault, and then hits the ball out on a second break point to gift the Japanese of another advantage. This time, the 21-year-old consolidated it and held her serve to love to secure the lead.
She immediately gained two set points in the following game and converted the first one to steal the German’s serve one more time and close the first set to a 6-3 scoreline, showing better consistency on both first and second serve throughout all the set.
Petkovic battles back and forces into a decider
The second set started as balanced as the first one; Hibino saved a break point in the first game, but both players had no problems in holding their first service games.
Petkovic started to put pressure on the rallies in the fourth game, and after a comfortable hold, she pushed on the Japanese’s serve to gain a break point. Hibino tried to save it from the net, but Petkovic returned the ball on the baseline to claim the first break of the set. She consolidated it with another consistent game at serve.
Hibino tried to gain the momentum, holding her serve to 15, helped by two huge points at the net; she kept her pace to win the break back and hold again, conceding the German only three points in just as many games to claim the lead again.
She pushed on Petkovic’s following serve, without being able to prevent her to level off to a 5-5 scoreline.
The German regained the control of the set, breaking the Japanese’s serve one last time and consolidated it right away, to claim the second set with a 7-5 scoreline.
Petkovic dominates and settles a 5-1 lead
All went downwards for Hibino in the third and final set; the Japanese hit too many errors and double faults to quickly fall 0-4 down to the German. She couldn’t steal a single point from Petkovic in the 28-year-old’s first two service games, and lost her second service game with a forehand unforced error.
On the fifth game, the Japanese needed to save two break points, who could’ve made her fall 5-0 behind, to finally hold and won her first game in the set.
That didn’t prevent Petkovic from holding the following game, gaining the chance to serve out the match.
Hibino regained some consistency on her own serve, as she was 40-15 up in the seventh game when both players were forced to leave the court due to rain; she still was in a difficult situation, as she was trailing her opponent 1-5 down.
Petkovic and Hibino will resume their play tomorrow in the first match on Court 17, the same as todays. The German will need to keep her momentum to win the last game that keeps her away from the second round. On the other hand, the Japanese has the chance to take advantage of the long break to regain control of the match and perform a comeback.