A battled match, complicated by a rain delay during the second set, saw Japanese Misaki Doi eventually prevail in her third round match at the Wimbledon Championships against Germany’s Anna-Lena Friedsam, who served her way through most of the match, but couldn’t keep enough consistency during the most crucial points. A clever game, made of well-built points and a good defense, allowed the Japanese to close the match with a 7-6(1), 6-3 scoreline and advance to the fourth round of a major for the first time in career.

Doi dominates the tiebreak and takes the first set

The first set had been characterized by a solid game on serve by the German, which she couldn’t keep in the tiebreak, giving it up 7 points to 1.

Friedsam started very solid. After a comfortable hold, she couldn’t score a single point in the first service game of the Japanese, but settled the score right after, holding her own serve to love as well.

She then started to attack, and from a 40-15 advantage on her opponent’s serve, Friedsam pushed on the last rally and claimed the first break of the set.

Doi immediately reacted, gaining herself a break-point right in the following game, and an unforced error from Friedsam let her converting it, leveling off to a 3-3 scoreline.

The following games saw Friedsam very solid on her serve, holding them all without allowing her opponent to score a single point.

Doi had more trouble in holding her own serve. In the ninth game, the longest of the set, she needed to save five set points and failed to convert four chances to hold (one with a double-fault) before being able to close the game. A lot of errors from Friedsam in the most important moments helped her to stay in the set.

A quick hold from Doi in the last game led the game in a tiebreak, which had been in full control of the Japanese. Playing some clever points and showing up a good defense, Doi didn’t concede more than one point to her opponent, and never give up her serve to quickly storm ahead and claim the tiebreak with a 7-1 scoreline.

Anna-Lena Friedsam in action during her first round match at the Wimbledon Championships (Photo credit:  Adam Pretty/Getty Images)

Doi storms ahead after rain delay and claims the match

The second game started not differently as the first. Doi easily held to start the set, and again she couldn’t find any chance to fight back against Friedsam’s powerful service game.

A not so troubled hold and Doi found her first chance to take the lead; up 40-0 in her service games, the German hit three double-faults in a row to led the game to deuce, and then hit the backhand out to give Doi her first break point of the set (the second of the match). Three good serves in a row saved the day for the German, who hold to keep the tie.

Up 40-0 in her following game, Doi once again suffered an aggressive play on returns from her opponent and quickly fell to another deuce. Two good points build with her first serve eased the hold for the Japanese, who led 3-2 right before the rain forced the players out of the court.

As they came back on the court, the game fell under the full control of the Japanese. She immediately went to take the lead, breaking Friedsam’s serve and saving one break point to consolidate it in the following game, the most battled on of this late part of the match.

The German held to shorten the gap, but Doi found no trouble in serving out the match, converting her first match point.

Misaki Doi in action during her second round match at the Wimbledon Championships  (Photo credit: Clive Brunskill/Getty Images)

Misaki Doi enters the second week of a major for the first time in career. In her next match, she will meet another German, third seed Angelique Kerber, for a place in the quarterfinals. Their last and most memorable meeting happened at this year’s Australian Open in the first round, where the German had saved a match point to win the match, earning the first of the seven victories that led her to win the championship. Kerber lead their head-to-head 4 to 0; their only previous meet on grass had been at 2010 Aegon Classic, with the German prevailing in three sets.

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