NEW YORK (Reuters) – Kazakhstan’s Yulia Putintseva reached the U.S. Open quarter-finals with a 6-3 2-6 6-4 victory over eighth seed Petra Martic in a see-saw encounter at Flushing Meadows on Sunday.
Putintseva surged into a 5-0 lead in 19 minutes on her way to taking the opening set but Croatian Martic appeared to have turned the match in her favour by easing through the second.
With Putintseva needing treatment on her back during the second set, it appeared Martic was poised to reach the last eight. Instead it was Putintseva who romped away into a 5-1 lead before nerves crept in.
Martic clawed back three games before having her own injury timeout to deal with a foot injury — giving Putintseva plenty of time to think about the task of winning one more game.
On the resumption though Putintseva held herself together and sealed victory as Martic drilled a backhand into the net.
(Reporting by Martyn Herman, editing by Pritha Sarkar)
