When the draw was announced on Friday, most people were probably looking forward to a match between Radwanska and her good friend Caroline Wozniacki.
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The Czech star will face top-seed Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland in the semifinals.
Ostapenko had upset four-time New Haven champion Caroline Wozniacki in the first round and had a set point, leading the fourth-ranked player in the world 5-4.
“Well, it was a insane story”, Flipkens said when she got the call to play.
Despite a loss of momentum in the second set, the lucky loser was determined to not allow this match to slip away like it had during her second round qualifying match against Kayla Day.
“They should look at New Haven”, she said about her critics.
Second-seeded Roberta Vinci of Italy topped Croatia’s Ana Konjuh 6-2, 6-2. “And I could feel it a little that it was going to be mental at the end”. Bencic continued to play fearlessly, until 5-2 when Flipkens chose to match her opponent’s bold tactics. Although it would be awfully hard to pull that off at packed combined events such as the Western and Southern Open, I do think people would enjoy those kinds of matches.
She dominated the first set over a rusty Bencic, who is coming off a left wrist injury and was playing her second competitive match since Wimbledon. Ostapenko held a set point at 5-4 on Radwanska’s serve in the first set but was unable to convert as her backhand misfired and the unforced error count did her in. Radwanska then closes out the set with two straight wins for the second time in the match to eliminate Jelena Ostapenko from the New Haven tournament.
“I just knew I had to keep fighting, try to bring every ball back”, Flipkens said. “I warmed up from 1 to 1:30 and then I went on the court to play”.
Larsson, a lucky loser, will face the victor of the match between No. 8 Roberta Vinci of Italy and Ana Konjuh of Croatia.
Meanwhile, Johanna Larsson should send Svetlana Kuznetsova a thank you card for suffering the shoulder injury that forced her to withdraw.
“At 5-4 I have a very good first point where I make the passing shot down the line with my forehand”.
Bacsinzky had defeated Larsson in their four previous meetings – all in straight sets – on the WTA Tour dating back to 2015, but the fifth time was the charm for Larsson, ranked 62nd in the world.
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Ekaterina Makarova of Russian Federation became the first player to advance to the third round. The 6-3, 6-2 win also gives Makarova a 1-0 record over Sevastova in their career head to head.
