Three break-back points fended off in the second set, a fifth break point converted in the ninth game of the third, a third match point to finish. This kind of match, technically, I recognise it. Not in the same context, with fewer break points squandered before the one that counts, but I recognise it.
Minnen lost the first set in a tie-break after breaking straight away in the second game and letting Svitolina break back in the fifth. Then both players dropped serve in turn, right up to the decider, which the Ukrainian won. That’s the classic club league (interclubs, Belgium’s weekend team league) scenario on a Sunday morning: you’re up, you ease off, and you end up trading the ball down the middle for a quarter of an hour. The difference is she had two more sets to make up for it. In club league, I get one tie-break and a clubhouse that shuts at noon.
In the second set, Minnen broke again straight away, then had to fend off three break-back points before closing it out 6-4. Three break-back points in a row, without cracking: that’s the kind of run I’m still telling people about three weeks later, in an improved version, obviously. The third set went on exactly long enough for everyone’s nails to suffer, until that fifth break point in the ninth game, then a third match point. Two hours and eleven minutes in total, which, on the Court 4 scale on a Sunday at ten, works out to roughly a match and a half plus restringing time.
That fifth break point in the ninth game, I make it. Not every time, but I make it, especially if Court 4 is dry and I haven’t had to play two hours eleven beforehand. Two practice sessions away, mind you, she and I, that’s the same match.
The win brings Belgium level at 1-1 against Ukraine, after Jana Otzipka’s defeat, beaten by Anhelina Kalinina 6-7, 6-1, 6-1 in the opener. The decisive doubles now pits Magali Kempen and Lara Salden against Anhelina Kalinina and Lyudmyla Kichenok, without Elise Mertens, playing the WTA 500 in Singapore, without Hanne Vandewinkel, ill, and without Jeline Vandromme, injured. A depleted squad, a bit like mine on some Sundays when two partners pull out on Saturday night with a suspicious stomach bug.
Three players down and we stay level with Ukraine. That speaks to me: I also play my best matches when the team’s down to the bone. Less pressure, more room on Court 4.
The winner of this quarter-final will face in the semi-final the winner of the match between Italy, the two-time defending champions, and China, the host nation. Czechia and Spain will meet in the other semi-final.
It’s true, we checked: RTBF Sport.
