The quarterfinals of the WTA Croatia Bol Open will take place this afternoon from 13:00.
Kaštela tennis player Tena Lukas was the hero of the second round of the WTA Croatia Bol Open on Thursday. In the final match of the day, on the central court of the Bluesun tennis center, Lukas defeated Canadian tennis player Zhao with 6:0, 2:6, 7:5. In the first set, Tena played the tennis of her dreams, hitting each ball with so much power Zhao could barely cope.
Zhao, however, continued to fight in the second set, and after Tena began to miss, the game equalized to 1:1 in sets.
The home support by the Bol public motivated the Croatian tennis player at the start of the decisive set, and after a few minutes, Lukas lead 3:0. But once again, we witnessed a turnaround. Zhao put herself back together, found the recipe for Tena’s "bombs" and lead 4:3. Lukas then equalized at 4:4 and had a match point for 5:4 but did not use it and Zhao made a break for 5:4 and served for the match.
The Croatian representative did not give up and returned with a break for 5:5, and then kept her game to lead 6:5. Lukas was on her way to a significant triumph, which she later confirmed with a new break.
The crowd in the stands went wild.
"I left my heart on the court; I really did my best. The audience helped me so much, and there was no question of whether they would, so and I managed to pull through, but for them, I had to pull my last atom of strength,” said Tena.
When asked about how she would prepare for tomorrow's match against Mariana Duque-Mariño, Tena said, "I am not thinking about it. I’ll play point to point, game to game, and I hope to celebrate again."
The rest of Thursday's WTA Croatia Bol Open was also full of excitement. In eight intriguing individual duels, we saw the battle between Montenegrin Danka Kovinić and Polly Magda Linette. Kovinić had a devastatingly good service which was terribly convincing, but in most of the duel, the Polish player managed to calm the attack and react correctly. Kovinić managed to take second set, but Linette finally deserved the place in the quarterfinal.
"The ball hit the line in every game or match point,” the Montenegrin complained, but there was no help.
The winner of Bol in 2016, Mandy Minella of Luxembourg, had no answer to the attack of Colombian player Duque-Mariño, while Slovenian Zidanšek, who surprisingly kicked out Ajla Tomljanović, has now sent home last year's finalist - Romanian player Cadantu.
Italian veteran Sara Errani easily took the first set against Bulgaria’s Tomo, though she complicated things by losing the second set and had the audience on their toes well after 21:00.
Round Two Results
C. Zhao (Canada) - T. Lukas (Croatia) 0:6, 6:2, 5:7
S. Sorribes Tormo (Spain) - S. Zhuk (Russia) 6:4, 6:0
M. Minella (Luxembourg) - [8] M. Duque-Mariño (Colombia) 3:6, 1:6
D. Kovinić (Montenegro) - [2] M. Linette (Poland) 4:6, 6:2, 1:6
V. Tomova (Bulgaria) - [4] S. Errani (Italy) 1:6, 6:2, 2:6
S. Soler-Espinosa (Spain) - [5] A. Schmiedlova (Slovakia) 2:6, 1:6
V. Golubic (Switzerland) - M. Honcova (Slovakia) 6:3, 0:6, 6:3
T. Zidanšek (Slovenia) - A. Cadantu (Romania) 6:7 (2), 6:3, 6:3
Quarterfinals
Friday, 08.06. from 13:00
Zidanšek – Schmiedlova
Sorribes Tormo – Errani
Lukas – Duque-Marino
Golubić - Linette
