Fourth seed Krejcikova survives scare to set up Azarenka clash

MELBOURNE (AFP): French Open champion and world number four Barbora Krejcikova survived a scare in a gritty comeback win against Jelena Ostapenko Friday at the Australian Open.

The Czech fourth seed was one of the standout players of 2021, winning three titles as she soared 60 places up the rankings.

Her expectations were high coming into the opening Grand Slam of the year, but she was in deep trouble at 2-6, 1-3 down to the 2017 Roland Garros winner before fighting back to clinch the match on Rod Laver Arena 2-6, 6-4, 6-4.

It set up an attractive fourth-round clash with two-time Australian Open champion Victoria Azarenka, who swept past Elina Svitolina for the loss of just two games.

“Today’s match was really tough, difficult, I had to really dig deep to get this win,” said Krejcikova, who has won the last three Australian Open mixed doubles titles.

“I was just fighting. I felt I found the fighting spirit in me and as was just going for every ball. I was just telling myself ‘just keep going, you want to stay here’.”

Krejcikova beat Ostapenko last year in Dubai, the tournament that truly began her singles ascent, but it was the Latvian 26th seed who started strongly in Melbourne, getting an early break to take a 4-1 lead on a scorching day.

She outpaced the Czech in winners and made far fewer unforced errors to take the set and looked on course for a big scalp after breaking Krejcikova in the second set for a 3-1 lead.

But the Czech broke back twice to take the match into a decider, where her first serve percentage improved and error count diminished as she broke Ostapenko early to set up the win.