Allentown’s own Varvara Lepchenko stepped up in the quarterfinals late tonight to face #4 in the world Agnieszka Radwanska. Lepchenko was looking to have a strong showing as she had been defeated in 3 previous meetings with Radwanska. Currently ranked #40 by the WTA, Varvara’s career high ranking was #19 achieved in October 2012.
The first set started out great for Lepchenko as she jumped to an early 2-0 lead but unforced errors quickly put her behind 4-2. She fought hard taking Radwanska into tie breakers but ended up losing 7-6.
In the second set Lepchenko dominated, just as she did in the first set, but without as many unforced errors. She rolled to a 6-3 victory!
The third and deciding set started out with both breaking serve and moving to a 1-1 tie. Both came back to hold making it 2-2. Both broke serve making it 3-3. Unfortunately Lepchenko’s unforced errors returned falling behind 3-5 and lost 3-6.
Final line: 6-7, 6-3, 3-6.
With that said, when the #40 player pushes the #4 player as far as Lepchenko challenged Radwanska tonight.. it’s impressive. Without a handful of unforced errors Varvara is in the Semi-finals.
One other thing I noticed was a LOT of bad calls. Fortunately tennis allows players to challenge calls. I would say at least 10 calls were reversed upon challenging however, it simply reveals a great backup system to reduce human error. Well done tennis and well done Varvara! You did good and we are proud!
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