WHAT HAPPENED: The opening game of the second round match between Petra Martic and Kateryna Bondarenko on Day 3 of the 2020 US Open foretold a long and grueling match—the game lasted nearly ten minutes, spread across seven deuces, before the No. 8 seed Martic found a way to break serve.
But Martic, a 29-year-old Croatian, quickly altered that storyline, racing out to a 5-1 lead before winning the first set, 6-3. Bondarenko, who had to fend off break points even in the games she held serve, hit some crisp winners early, but she could not keep up—after 15 games, Martic had twice as many winners. And Bondarenko, who recently returned from maternity leave and had less post-shutdown match play under her belt than Martic, showed her rust. She was plagued by unforced errors, a problem that only grew as Martic gained momentum.
Making matters worse, the 34-year-old Ukranian seemed to wince and limp at times and, with her movement faltering, Martic took advantage, going to the drop shot often, winning six of seven such points in the first set. Bondarenko saved several set points but ultimately came up short.
In the crucial fourth game of the second set, Bondarenko fended off several break points to hang even, at 2-2, but Martic responded with a quick hold to maintain the scoreboard pressure. At 3-3, Martic was even more emphatic, with three aces and a forehand winner in a love hold. Overall, she won 13 of the first 14 points on her serve in the second set, not even facing a deuce until 4-4, when she briefly faltered to save a break point. But on this day, Martic had all the answers, reeling off six straight points to set up her 6-3, 6-4 victory.
WHAT IT MEANS: In 2016, Martic suffered a back injury that threatened to end her career. She eventually dropped out of the Top 500, but upon her return she has stepped up her game. Now ranked No. 14 in the world and the top Croatian female, she has, since 2017, reached the fourth round of every Grand Slam, including the 2019 US Open. (She also won her first WTA title in 2019, in Istanbul.) Breaking through to a quarterfinal could propel her to the Top 10.
MATCH POINT: Martic should be confident about reaching her first-ever Grand Slam quarterfinal: the only two seeded players potentially standing in her way are Kristina Mladenovic (No. 30) and Marketa Vondrousova (No. 12), but Martic has beaten Mladenvic five straight times in the last three years and has taken four of five from Vondrousova.
