Google News Hungarian Grand Prix: Anhelina Kalinina books final showdown against Yulia Putintseva
by ABBEY JOHNSON
Yulia Putintseva and Anhelina Kalinina will take on each other for the Hungarian Grand Prix title on Sunday. The two finalists came through to the last round in completely different fashions. In the first semi-final, the top-seeded Putintseva ended the run of Hungary’s Dalma Galfi.
The Kazakh, however, needed two hours and 25 minutes to complete the 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 win over the 20-year-old.
Hungarian Grand Prix: Yulia Putintseva and Anhelina Kalinina renew rivalry
Putintseva broke Galfi twice and saved the only break point she faced to race away to a quick lead in the match.
However, Galfi pegged her back in the second set and thanks to an early break was able to go up 3-0 on her higher-ranked opponent. The momentum of the set shifted right back as Putintseva got the break back. But it was a brief let-up for Galfi who was able to clinch a second break to take the set and level the match.
Putintseva never looked troubled in the decider, despite having to take a medical time-out, and closed out the match solidly. The Kazakh finished with 86 points to Galfi’s 79 In the other semi-final between Ukraine’s Kalinina and the second seed Danielle Collins, the former led 7-6(5), 4-1 before Collins called time on the match with an injury.
The first set, however, swung wildly between both players before Kalinina managed to pocket it to go up in the match. Kalinina built a comfortable 5-1 lead and even served for the match twice, once at 5-2 and the second time at 5-4.
While she was broken at the first time of asking, the second time around she had a set point but wasn’t able to convert it. In the tie-break, Kalinina got a second set point but double-faulted it away before finally grasping the set on her third set point.
The Hungarian Grand Prix final between Yulia Putintseva and Anhelina Kalinina will be the first meeting between the pair in almost seven years. The only previous time they met, in the qualifying round of the $50,000 ITF event in Osprey, Putintseva won the match.
Meanwhile, in terms of finals, this is Putintseva’s second career final and she’ll be attempting to win her second career title. On the other hand, this is Kalinina’s first WTA final.