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Beatriz Haddad Maia won a nerve-wracking fourth-round match against Sara Sorribes Tormo to reach the Roland Garros quarter-finals on Monday. The 14th seed from Brazil won 6-7(3), 6-3, 7-5 in what became the longest women’s match of the calendar at three hours and 51 minutes.
But the way the left-hander started the match it didn’t seem like she would need even a couple of hours to wrap it up. Her powerful groundstrokes were too good for Sorribes Tormo whose game broke down after her first service game in the opening set.
Both players played lung-busting rallies utilising the full court and drawing out the error from the opponent. With Haddad Maia leading 5-1, Sorribes Tormo went about making reparations that eventually allowed her to take the set.
Roland Garros: How the win came about for Beatriz Haddad Maia
Haddad Maia served for the first set thrice in regulation time. The first time with the score reading 5-2 and the second time at 5-4 but on both occasions, she was broken without even reaching set point.
A third break on the Spaniard’s serve in the 11th game gave her, her third chance to serve out the set. And, as had happened the first two times, she didn’t even get to make it to set point before giving the break back to her opponent.
In the tie-break, Haddad Maia’s inability to serve for the set cost her, her focus and her game broke down completely. While before she was able to hit winners, her errors started piling up and Sorribes Tormo dropped just three points in the tie-break to take the lead.
The start of the second set was just as horrendous for the 27-year-old who went down two breaks and trailed her rival 3-0 before getting things done right for herself. Unlike in the first set where she went for her shots boldly, this time Haddad Maia settled for patience and got her opponent to make mistakes that helped her win six consecutive games to bring the match on level terms and enforce the decider.
The third set began with Haddad Maia going up a break and then giving it back. A second break soon came her way again in the fifth game and she didn’t let Sorribes Tormo into the match. In the ninth game on the world no.
132’s serve, Haddad Maia had three match points but her rival held on forcing the world no. 14 to serve out the match. When trying to do so, Haddad Maia’s inconsistencies ballooned up again and she dropped her serve to push the set to five-all.
A third break on Sorribes Tormo’s serve in the 11th game invoked déjà vu as Haddad Maia prepared to serve for the match for the second time. This time around, she did bring up a match point – her fourth of the day – and went on convert it with a forehand winner.
Haddad Maia finished with 65 winners, 30 more than Sorribes Tormo’s 35. She also had just as many unforced errors while her opponent finished with 31. In reaching the quarter-finals in Paris, Haddad Maia became the first woman from her country to make it this far in a Slam since 1968.
Back in that year, Maria Esther Bueno played the French Open quarters while also reaching the quarters at Wimbledon and semi-finals at the US Open. Ons Jabeur will be Beatriz Haddad Maia’s next rival at Roland Garros.
The world no. 7 finished her fourth-round match against Bernarda Pera 6-3, 6-1 in an hour and three minutes. In fact, Jabeur’s match was shorter than the first set played between Haddad Maia and Sara Sorribes Tormo with both matches starting at 11:00 local time. Photo Credit: Roland Garros Twitter