Yulia Putintseva of Kazakhstan, the world number 60, played her fourth-round match of the French Open on Court 2 on Wednesday morning. Her opponent was the 12th seed Spaniard, Carla Suarez Navarro. The match was even in both sets and momentum kept exchanging hands between the two players but at the end, in both sets, the 21-year-old Kazakh was the stronger of the two and she won 7-5, 7-5. In the quarterfinal, she will face no other than the defending champion and world number one, American Serena Williams, who beat Elina Svitolina from the Ukraine 6-1, 6-1. 

Putintseva Comes on Top in a Turbulent First Set

Suarez Navarro went 30-0 up in the first game, on her serve, but Putintseva won the next four points and broke. The Kazakh consolidated her break in the next game and went 2-0 up. The 12th seed kept committing unforced errors and Putintseva found herself with three break points in the third game and a chance to make it 3-0, but Suarez Navarro saved all three. At that point, the match seemed on an evil keel. In the fourth game, Suarez Navarro broke back to level the set to 2-2.

The pendulum kept swinging in the fifth game and the 21-year-old Kazakh broke again to lead 3-2. In the sixth game, Putintseva managed to consolidate the break and increased the lead to 4-2. The momentum did not stay with her for long though and the next two games went the Spaniard way, and the scoreboard showed 4-4. Like her young opponent, the 27-year-old Spaniard could not maintain any momentum and she was broken in the ninth game. Putintseva was serving for the first set at 5-4 but after a long game that went to two deuces, she surrendered and we were on serve again, at 5-5. At the end of the set, the Kazakh gave it a final push and won the two more games, to clinch the first set 7-5. 

Putintseva Clinches a Tight Second Set 

The second set, unlike the first, started with a hold from Suarez Navarro. Putintseva held her first service game as well and broke the Spaniard's serve in the third game to go up 2-1. Much like in the first set, none of the players could really get the momentum going her way for more than a couple of games and the 12th seed won the next two games to reverse the score to 3-2 in her favor.

The set continued with four holds of serve, and the scoreboard showed Suarez Navarro was leading 5-4 in the second set and one game away from leveling the match; however, her opponent held to love in the 10th game and leveled the set to 5-5. Putintseva kept the pressure on her opponent and clinched two more games to win the second set in the same score as the first set, 7-5.

Putintseva wins 7-5, 7-5 in two hours and four minutes and she is through to the quarterfinals where she will meet the world number one and defending champion, American Serena Williams

 Yulia Putintseva from kazakhstan is through to her first career-quarterfinal appreance in a slam where she will face the world number one, Serena Williams, from the United States of America(Photo: Julian PFinney/Getty).
 Yulia Putintseva of Kazakhstan is through to her first career quarterfinal appearance in a slam where she will face the world number one, Serena Williams of the United States of America(Photo: Julian Finney/Getty).  

A Look at the Final Match Statistics

The statistics show there was not much to separate the two players. The Kazakh served a bit better and had three aces to no double faults as opposed to zero aces and two double faults from the Spaniard. Putintseva also won more points behind her first serve; 63 percent versus only 50 from Suarez-Navarro. The 21-year-old also had more winners and less unforced errors; 33 winners and 27 unforced errors compared to 26 winners and 36 unforced errors from her 12th seed opponent. Finally, Putintseva won 84 points in the match, 15 more than her opponent.       

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About the author
Moran Noyman
Hi, my name is Moran and I'm a huge fan of tennis and of Novak Djokovic. I'm a graphic designer but I also love to write and had my own blog about my tennis views (especially on Djokovic).