Van Uytvanck stuns Putintseva to win 2021 Astana Open final

Van Uytvanck is a known indoor hard court specialist and she showed it this week in Astana taking down the favoured Yulia Putitnseva in three sets 1-6 6-4 6-3. It was a comeback win for the Belgian who shook offer a poor start to come back and win in a contest that lasted well over two hours. Van Uytvanck now has a perfect 5-0 record in WTA finals which is quite something.

The start of the match was dominated by Putintseva who was on fire. The Kazakhstani player had complete control of the match dominating points from the baseline. It took Van Uytvanck some time to adjust to that and after doing she started playing much better. Even with the improved play, the match was a very closely contested one.

Van Uytvanck took a 2-0 lead in the 2nd set but Putintseva pulled it back not long after that 2-2. Van Uytvanck broke again to take a 4-3 lead but once again lost her serve to make it 4-4. She broke again to make it 5-4 and finally closed out the set with 6-4. She saved break points in that game as well so it was a very closely contested set that could have gone either way.

The 3rd was a similar one as Putintseva took an early 2-0 lead and it seemed the favourite would be able to win it. However, Van Uytvanck had something to say about that and her level rose sharply in the next few games. Well aware of the match slipping away she adopted a relaxed attitude that opened up her game. From 2-3 down she won 4 games in row to close it out with 6-3. Congratulations!