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What was a fight for focus helped Alize Cornet take the win at the Western & Southern Open late on Monday night. The French star overcame a 6-1 first set deficit and battled off Jelena Ostapenko who struggled through the remainder of the night in a 1-6, 7-5, 6-0 win on Grandstand Court at the Lindner Family Tennis Center.
It was a match that saw both of struggle, dig in and fall flat with the 28-year-old Frenchwoman coming up victorious.
The two made their first marks on one another at a pivotal moment to prove their skills before the final major of the year. While Cornet had some success in recent weeks, she had yet to put anything significant together on the hard courts losing to Ashleigh Barty in the third round of Montreal.
The world number 11 was in an even tighter position not getting the best start north of the border with an early round defeat to Johanna Konta. With time off to figure out her issues, the 21-year-old would have her moment to change course and point in the right way in her third appearance at the tournament.
She broke Cornet easily but got into trouble with her own service game in the second. Ostapenko committed two double faults but won it after three breaks with Cornet’s return landing out.
She attempted to gain another break but Cornet was able to secure the hold of serve on deuce keeping the Latvian within reach. Ostapenko had her eyes set on containing a strong stance of the set controlling her service game before earning the break on Cornet’s unforced error to take a 4-1 lead.
The French star thought she might have a break in hand but her unforced errors began to aggravate to the point of screaming out loud. It led to a 5-1 run for the 21-year-old Latvian who went for the double break to close out the set in 37 minutes.
Ostapenko had 18 winners that dominated Cornet who struggled on serve landing 14 of 25 on the first and just three of 13 from the second. While there weren’t many unforced errors the lack of power allowed the Latvian to dictate.
She picked up where she left off holding in the opening game of the second set before Cornet found a way to hold after speaking to her coach during the break. When Ostapenko played the third game, she double-faulted and lost control giving Cornet a chance to break her.
The Latvian defended just enough saving the serve after two breaks of deuce. The lead Ostapenko had put together fell apart allowing Cornet some room to battle back and try and force the third set into play.
She had a footing in her game but watched Ostapenko brush off the problems and dig in to keep competing. It brought her to a four-all tie where the next couple of games would determine the path of the match.
An important break for Cornet earned her a shot at serving for the match having put in plenty of work on Deuce to break the former French Open champion. Cornet began to show comfort in the tenth game but couldn’t get out in front as Ostapenko gained enough push to send them further in the set.
She didn’t get the chance to set herself up as Cornet’s second serve returns were on point winning another break against the Latvian before closing it out with a well-focused ending to her offense setting up a pivotal third set after 56 minutes.
The winners to unforced errors were not favoring the Latvian who also carried a tough first serve that she would have to get in check going into the final set.
It didn’t arrive for her as Cornet blasted away to take the break followed by a hold of serve. She soon achieved a double break, making it 4-0 as Ostapenko had nothing to show for her game that saw less than 40 percent of her first serve shots counting.
It was just enough to keep the foot on the gas for Cornet who soon had a triple break serving for a shot at shutting out the world number 11. Cornet opened to three match points but had them all erased with errors on the backhand.
Though it went to deuce, she caught another chance on the fourth try to get it done handing the bagel to Ostapenko in two hours and two minutes.
The key winner for Cornet was keeping her offense together and putting it down on Ostapenko to keep her at bay. She served at 70 percent winning 64 percent from the first and 67 percent from the second.
With another hard-fought victory from the tennis veteran, she’ll prepare for her second-round match to come against Ana Bogdan or Ekaterina Makarova.
