Eighth seed Barbora Krejcikova survived a wild match against Ninth seed Garbine Murguruza to defeat her 6-3 7-6 (7-4) and progress towards her first quarter-finals at the US Open.
What a battle.
@BKrejickova survives a wild match to advance to her first #USOpen quarterfinal. pic.twitter.com/iejPppraq6
— US Open Tennis (@usopen) September 6, 2021
Playing in the main draw of the US Open for the first time in her career after failing to qualify for this Grand Slam on five occasions, she took to the US hard courts like a fish in water similar to the Clay courts in the French Open which she won.
Krejcikova called for a medical time out later in the second set as she looked in pain after the match ended and needed the doctors to escort her back to the changing rooms. For the Spaniard, it was a very familiar sound. She has won the Wimbledon and the French Open, almost won the Australian Open by being in the finals but has never progressed to the quarter-final stage of the US Open and this has continued till now with her loss against the Czech tennis player.
The eighth seed played a brilliant match with her dominating against her Spanish opponent and zooming to a 3-0 lead in the first set. Murguruza eventually did manage to get back but by then, the Czech was able to win seven straight games and even took an almost insurmountable lead against Murguruza of 4-0 in the second set. Things looked strongly in Krejcikova’s favour but the Spaniard had other plans and pulled it back and won five games consecutively to make it 5-4. With the score at 6-5, the Czech called for a kind of controversial Medical Time Out clutching her abdomen. After returning to the court, Krejcikova managed to hold on to her serve and managed to win the tie break comfortably at 7-4.
Krejcikova told reporters after the match that she felt really bad after the match and is struggling. She added, ” “I don’t know what happened but I couldn’t breathe. I started to feel dizzy and the whole world was shaking. It never happened to me before. I just gave my all at the end.”
She will next face second-seeded Aryna Sabalenka in the quarterfinal round and has faced her before in Linz with the latter winning it in three sets.
