Nadia Podoroska won her second three-setter in less than 24 hours, this time packing off crowd favourite Eugenie Bouchard 1-6, 6-4, 6-2 to enter the last four of the WTA Chennai Open, at the SDAT Tennis Stadium here on Friday.
In a match that lasted nearly three hours, both players alternated between enthralling tennis and extended flat spots. Bouchard’s pedigree and big-match experience should have helped her edge the contest; she won more points (88 to 86), served and returned just as well as the Argentine and made seven fewer double-faults.
But Podoroska, whose ranking of No. 298 is deceptive at best — she was ranked as high as 36 in July last year — was steady when it mattered while Bouchard combusted at crucial junctures. Podoroska will next meet the 17-year-old Czech Linda Fruhvirtova, who ousted the tournament’s second seed Varvara Gracheva 6-4, 6-3.
