Ana Bogdan knocked out Marie Bouzkova in the Round of 16 at the WTA 250 Japan Open
Ana Bogdan (Romania) knocked out the fourth-seeded Marie Bouzkova (Czech Republic) in the Round of 16 at the WTA 250 Japan Open in Osaka. The Romanian tennis player prevailed over her Czech opponent by 2-0 (6:0, 7:6) in exactly two hours of play.
The match started surprisingly bad for the fourth-seeded Marie Bouzkova, who was not able to win a single game in the first set and allowed two breaks “on zero”. Although some of the games to be quite interesting and the Czech player to have her chances, the match did not start positively for her at all.
The second set, however, Marie Bouzkova found her style of play. Ana Bogdan started with a break, but her Czech opponent returned it immediately. Both exchanged one more break each and the Romanian player succeeded to finish this series with one break in her favor and leading in the result by 4:2. At 5:4 she served for the match, but Marie Bouzkova succeeded to return the break and equalized the score to 5:5. Without any breakpoints by the end of the set, it entered into a tiebreak. Initially, Marie Bouzkova was the first to make a mini-break, but Ana Bogdan equalized. Both players exchanged two more mini breaks and at 6-5 at service of the Czech player, Ana Bogdan made another decisive mini break to win the set and the match.
In the next round, Ana Bogdan will face Suzan Lamens (Netherlands), who eliminated Lucia Bronzetti (Italy) after 2-0 (6:3, 6:4).
In the other matches from the day, Diane Parry (France) defeated Greet Minnen (Belgium) by 2-0 (6:4, 6:2) and Sarah Saito (Japan) eliminated the fifth-seeded Elina Avanesyan (Armenia) after 2-0 (7:6, 6:4).
The third-seeded Elise Mertens (Belgium) is also out of the tournament in Osaka after retiring in the third set against Kimberly Birrell (Australia) at 1:4.
