Maria Sakkari’s early horror present become a bona fide thriller, however there’d be no joyful ending for the Greek who misplaced the opening rubber of the United Cup semi-final to Italy’s Martina Trevisan.
The world No.6 went in as a heat favorite in Sydney, having not dropped a set throughout her three singles wins to start out the competitors.
Trevisan, the world No.27, had been patchy at finest with just one, three-set win.
But kind went out the window, usually together with Sakkari’s groundstrokes, as Trevisan prevailed 6-3 6-7 (7-5) 7-5 in a three-hour and 15-minute epic.
Trevisan broke Sakkari in her opening service sport of the match and in the end established a 4-2 lead.
Some 22 unforced errors flowed from Sakkari’s racquet within the first set, together with a diabolical ninth sport the place she netted a backhand, struck a ball lengthy, double-faulted and missed a regulation volley at hand her opponent a 6-3 benefit.
The rot continued within the second as Trevisan took a 2-0 lead earlier than the two-time grand slam semi-finalist all of a sudden began to get her sport collectively.
Sakkari broke again and pushed forward with one other within the seventh sport, in the end serving for the set at 5-4.
But Trevisan flipped the script once more, snatching the break again to degree the competition.
The key second within the tiebreak got here at 4-4, Trevisan dominating the rally just for Sakkari to drag out an outstanding slapped forehand on defence to win the purpose.
While she levelled the match, Sakkari struggled to kick on within the third, a web wire giving Trevisan the break for 3-2.
The ever-smiling Italian could not maintain that one however broke Sakkari within the eleventh sport earlier than serving out the match.
In the night’s males’s singles match, Italian Lorenzo Musetti will play Greece’s Stefanos Sakellaridis.
The second males’s and ladies’s singles and combined doubles characteristic on Saturday.
