Tennis Forum banner

Moscow QF: Vikhlyantseva d. Cornet 4-6 7-5 6-3

1K views 8 replies 8 participants last post by  Povin 
#1 ·
Match of the event, and maybe the best Alizé has played all year, despite her defeat! Intense from start to finish, very few mistakes, incredible defense (defensive deep chops always near the baseline - a nightmare for any big striker!).

Natalia may have not served as well as yesterday and looked a bit annoyed at times. But the rallies were excellent quality and it was really close between both. Vikhlyantseva wasn't ballbashing but keeping the ball in the court smartly most of the time, while still dictating most of the rallies for being the bigger hitter. But Alizé was still intense and near-perfectly mixing defense and aggressiveness with entertaining variety.

Natalia asked for a MTO at 4-6 3-4, apparently a problem with the leg. Despite this little problem she remained focused and even had a break point on Alizé's serve at 4-4. The points that followed were all superb from both. Alizé managed to hold impressively. Natalia served to stay in the match at 4-5, after another massage of her leg. Held with difficulty despite Alizé's great defense (Alizé was two points from the victory). Then Alizé had trouble to hold her own serve at 5-5 and was broken by the Russian who was constantly aggressive without losing the plot (a hard task against such defense). It was then her turn to serve for the set, and she did, in a game that was fabulous, Alizé saving several set points, and Natalia saving one break point.

It must be said that my stream crashed several times during this match, apparently for technical problems, I don't know. I missed a few games, and for half the match I didn't have the sound.

At the start of the third set, Natalia was close to break Alizé immediately, but Alizé saved the game fiercely (not missing her drop shots this time). The players gave it all and certainly started to look both tired at this point (so do I, with this review, lol), but the match remained intense and exhausting (the second game only had many deuces). My bet at this point was that whoever was going to win this would be dead for the next match. Third game: Alizé saved two break points again. At this time I have no stream and have no idea how it looks like, all I know is that Alizé finally held, and broke Natalia to love in the fourth game for a 3-1 lead. Still the Russian broke back to stick to 2-3, which was crucial to not let Alizé fly to a most certain victory at this point.

Still no stream, but it looks like both players try to exhaust or make implode each other with hard tenacity. And I'm afraid of reviewing a scoreboard for the remaining of this match. :facepalm:

Anyway, how it went after: Alizé vs Natalia 3-3 (many deuces), 3-4 (Natalia broke), 3-5, 3-6.

Look for the rally at 6-4 2-2 adv. Vikhlyantseva... a 29 shots one if I believe the live comment!

Also the point at 6-4 5-6 adv. Vikhlyantseva.

Not sure if the technical problems were at mine only, I guess not. I still hope we can watch the highlights of this third set somewhere...

Congratulations to Vikhlyantseva, who certainly won a big battle here and it must mean something! :worship:
 
See less See more
#3 ·
I wanted to Cornet to win this, but Vikhlyantseva is so exciting to watch and it means so much to her to make SF of WTA tournament in her own country.
 
#7 ·
Not enough people talking about the potential of Vikhlyantseva, it’s interesting to see some players just naturally have a sweet strike on the ball, reminds me of Kvitova in that respect.

It’s also great to see someone wth that power at a young age not abuse it, she plays with a lot of thought, uses all the court and plays with varying pace, she doesn’t just bash from any position.

A little lazy on the footwork and as a result some lazy misses at the net but nothing that can’t be improved.

Really impressed with that i’ve seen from her so far, an exciting time to follow women’s tennis.

A Kasatkina vs Vikhlyantseva final would be great.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top