Petra Martić has won her first WTA title!

Petra Martić will fight for her first WTA title in her third attempt.

April 27, 2019 - Croatian tennis player Petra Martić (WTA-40) advanced to the semi-final of the WTA tournament in Istanbul, where after three hours and 17 minutes of a great fight, she overcame French player Kristina Mladenovic (WTA-66) with a score of 7:6 (4), 4:6, 7:6 (2), reports HTS. 

Martić missed the 5:2 advantage in the first set but still won the first part of the match thanks to a tie-break. Martić had a break advantage in the second set, but in the 4:3 lead, she lost three games in a row.

In the decisive set, Martić led 3:0, though Mladenovic came back for 3:3. Two other times, at 4:3 and 5:4, Martić had the advantage of a break but failed to capitalize. When she served to go to the decisive tie-break, the 28-year-old Croatian did not give up. In the final game, she led 6:2 and welcomed the win after Mladenovic missed a backhand.

For a place in the TEB BNP Paribas Istanbul Cup final, Martić will play against 24-year-old Russian Margarita Gasparyan (WTA-72).

This is the second consecutive semi-final for Petra Martić after she was among the four best in Charleston, USA. Caroline Wozniacki eliminated her from the tournament. 

In other news, Donna Vekić will long remember the quarter-final match of this year's WTA tournament in Stuttgart, where Croatia’s best female player fought against the best tennis player in the world, Naomi Osaka, and had a massive advantage of 5:1 in the decisive set. However, after an enormous turnaround, Osaka found the way to victory and advanced to the semi-final.

Oliver Marach and Mate Pavić finished this week's ATP 500 Series tournament in Barcelona. In the quarter-final, the Austrian-Croatian duo lost to South African Raven Klaasen and Britain Joe Salisbury - 7:6 (8), 7:6 (4).

The crisis for Marin Čilić continued this week, and not even his performance at the 250 Series ATP tournament in Budapest could bring better news for Croatia’s best male player. Marin reached his fourth consecutive defeat, and this time, it was Uruguayan player Pablo Cuevas (ATP-73) to knock out Čilić in the second round of the tournament (Marin was the first-seed and was free at the start of the competition). Cuevas celebrated after three hours and 12 minutes of play - 5:7, 7:6 (6), 7:6 (3).

After Marin Čilić, Borna Ćorić lost to Serbian tennis player Filip Krajinović (ATP-105) in two sets - 6:4, 7:5 .

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