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Ukraine’s Dayana Yastremska pulled off a heroic come-back at the Open 6ème Sens – Métropole de Lyon, saving 2 match points to defeat Ana Bogdan in over 3 hours, while Caroline Garcia rallied from a set down to up-end top seed Camila Giorgi on Tuesday.
Four days ago, Yastremska fled her war-torn country as a refugee, making her way from her hometown of Odessa by boat to Romania and then on by road to Lyon, where she received a wild-card and outlasted Bogdan, 3-6 7-6(7) 7-6(7) in the first-round, taking 3 hours and 5 minutes on court.
“I’m happy that I won for my country, but at the same time I’m very sad,” Yastremska said on court afterwards, with the Ukrainian flag draped around her shoulders.
“My heart stays at home, and my mind is fighting here, so it’s very difficult to find the concentration, to find the balance.
“This win, compared to what’s going on in my country, is nothing. But I’m happy, at least, I’m also fighting for my country.
“I’m really proud of the Ukrainians and they’re really heroes. I hope everything is going to finish soon.”
Watched by younger sister Ivanna, 15, the World No 140 showed immense heart to haul herself back into the match, coming through a nail-biting climax after trailing an early break in both the second and third sets, and finding her best form to pull herself back from the brink of defeat.
Serving at 5-6 down in the second set, the 21-year old found a forehand winner facing a first match point, and then sealed her own 3rd set point in the ensuing tiebreak with a stunning forehand return.
In the 3rd-set breaker, Yastremska fired a breathtaking backhand down the line to bring up triple match point, but dropped 4 straight points after some over-eager hitting and a double-fault.
Despite it all, the Ukrainian summoned up spectacular tennis, a forehand winner saving a 2nd match point and an un-returnable serve down the tee converting her fourth.
Home favourite Caroline Garcia upset top seed Camila Giorgi in Lyon on Tuesday
Meanwhile, Frenchwoman Garcia rallied from a set down to take out Giorgi, 5-7 6-4 6-0, in 2 hours 3 minutes, after the Italian No 1 seed earned a break to open up a 4-1 lead.
Garcia broke back in a hard-fought 7th game, but Giorgi sealed the first set with a break in the 12th.
Giorgi earned 2 break points in the 6th game of the second, but Garcia saved them both to hold serve before earning her crucial break in the 9th game to grab the set and force the match into the decider.
The Frenchwoman opened the 3rd with an early break, and held serve to deuce to take a 2-0 lead, then breaking two times more to bagel the win.
A Lyon resident, Garcia capitalised on Giorgi’s 12 double-faults, saved 4 of 6 break points and broke the Italian’s serve 5 times in 6 opportunities.
Garcia will play another Italian in Martina Trevisan, after she came through an Italian derby against Elisabetta Cocciaretto, 6-3 6-2.
Elsewhere, in other results from Lyon, China’s Shuai Zhang, seeded 8th, took down another Frenchwoman, Kristina Mladenovic, 7-6(3) 7-5 in 2 hours and 3 minutes.
Next up for Zhang is Arantxa Rus from the Netherlands, who ousted Danka Kovinic from Montenegro, 6-3 6-0, while German qualifier, Tamara Korpatsch also advanced to the 2nd round with a 6-3 1-6 6-2 win over Oceane Dodin of France.
Korpatsch will play 5th seed Jasmine Paolini from Italy, who reached the 2nd round on Monday.
7th seed Alison Van Uytvanck from Belgium and Romanian 2nd seed Sorana Cirstea also reached the round-of-16, defeating Vera Zvonareva, 6-3 6-0, and Mariam Bolkvadze, 6-3 6-1, respectively.
Van Uytvanck will play Varvara Gracheva for a place in the quarters, while Cirstea will take on Stefanie Voegele from Switzerland.