Gauff throws away victory against Sabalenka while Jabeur moves past Ostapenko in Ostrava

An eventful day at Ostrava saw Coco Gauff throw away a victory against Sabalenka while Jabeur defeated Ostapenko.

The Ostrava Open continued on Thursday with two interesting matches that were played earlier in the day as the opening two matches of the schedule. First, we had Ons Jabeur take on Jelena Ostapenko. Both of them put forward very good performances in the previous round and Ostapenko looked especially sharp. She could not reciprocate that result today as Jabeur defeated her in straight sets 6-4 6-4. It was a very tightly contested match that opened with a series of break that made for a very exciting watch. The score was tied at 3-3 and both players played well. At 5-4 for Jabeur Ostapenko a very poor game giving Ons the game and set 6-4.

The start of the 2nd game brought better play from Ostapenko and she broke Jabeur to take a 2-1 lead. That break was the beginning of a mad series of games that lasted for 5 more games. In all of those games, the receiving player ended up winning the game. Similar to the opening set the scoreline was tied but Jabeur added one more to close the exciting match with 6-4. A valiant effort from Ostapenko but her inability to win her own service games proved too costly today.

The 2nd match featured Coco Gauff and Aryna Sabalenka and it was the American who came out strong winning the opening set 6-1. She completely crushed Sabalenka who didn't serve or play too badly but she simply overmatched by an inspired Gauff who player superb. The start of the 2nd set brought better play from Sabalenka but midway through she called for a medical timeout which affected her play. It was unfortunate a Gauff struggled very much with her serve in the 2nd set but Sabalenka could not use that to her advantage.

Very late in the set Sabalenka finally got a chance after a visibly nervous Gauff gave her a break point. One more bad mistake from the young American gave Sabalenka the set. The final set was completely dominated by Gauff once more. She started off furiously breaking Sabalenka immediately at the start and went on to take a 5-2 lead. Once again nerves got to Gauff who failed to win the match and gave Sabalenka a chance to win the match with the result being 5-5.

Some time after that we arrived in the tiebreak where Sabalenka started off better taking a 3-0 lead. That lead turned to a 7-2 victory with Sabalenka completing the unbeliavable comeback. Gauff had the victory in her hands but she threw it away.