With a strong final spurt, Tamara Korpatsch reached the quarterfinals of the WTA tournament in Cluj-Napoca. The 28-year-old tennis player from Hamburg defeated number eight seed Jodie Burrage from Great Britain in the round of 16.
Korpatsch, who was ranked 105th in the world rankings before the start of the tournament, defeated Burrage (number 89 in the world rankings) 2:6, 6:2, 7:6 (7:5) in over two hours. In the tiebreak of the third set, the German was already 1:5 behind before she turned up the heat, scored six points in a row and was able to win the match.
For Korpatsch it was the second success in the second game against Burrage, who she beat in Ningbo, China, at the end of September. With the triumph, Korpatsch will move back into the top 100 of the WTA rankings next week.
The Ukrainian Daria Snigur (number 154 in the world rankings) is now waiting for Korpatsch in the quarterfinals. Snigur had beaten third-seeded Belgian Greet Minnen in the first round, but in the round of 16 the 21-year-old was too strong for DTB representative Anna-Lena Friedsam.
German tennis ace wins crazy break festival
If Korpatsch wants to have a chance against Snigur, she needs to get a better handle on her serve game. Against Burrage, the Hanseatic only scored in twelve out of 32 cases when she had to go over second. Luckily, Burrage didn’t cope much better: In total, each of the two opponents had to give up her serve seven times.
From a German perspective, in addition to Korpatsch, Eva Lys (number 133 in the world rankings) is also in the tournament. The 21-year-old, who initially defeated number one seed Romanian Sorana Cirstea, will face Cirstea’s compatriot Jaqueline Cristian (number 97 in the world rankings) on Thursday evening.
Noma Noha Akugue, on the other hand, had already failed at her opening hurdle.