Jodie Burrage triumphs after Kamilla Rakhimova thriller and Heather Watson receives bye as Yulia Putintseva retires
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Published 24/06/2023 at 14:59 GMT
Jodie Burrage came through the mire to win a superb three-set thriller against Kamilla Rakhimova of Russia. The 24-year-old showed plenty of grit and determination to come through two tie-breaks and progress to a qualification final. There was also good news for fellow Brit Heather Watson, who benefitted from the retirement of world No. 50 Yulia Putintseva in the second set.
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Jodie Burrage moved to within one win of qualifying for the Eastbourne Open after a thrilling 6-7 7-5 7-6 victory over Kamilla Rakhimova.
Two tie-breaks in the first and third sets secured a pulsating victory for the 24-year-old to cause a stir and knock out world No. 65, who sits 43 places above the Brit in the WTA rankings.
The first two games in the first set went to serve, before Burrage broke Rakimova in the third. After staving off two break points herself, the world No. 108 moved 3-1 ahead, before Rakimova reduced the arrears to hold.
Momentum swung Rakimova's way after she broke Burrage for the first time to draw level, while the following six games all went to serve.
Burrage looked to have run out of steam after being broken twice more in the tie-break, as Rakimova three times to move 5-0 ahead.
However, some impressive resolve from the British No. 2 saw her fight back to 6-5 down, before the Russian eventually prevailed on her fourth set point.
The next set was a must-win for Burrage, and she did just that in a gruelling 51 minutes. The first two games went to serve, with Burrage squandering the chance to break Rakimova in the second of those.
She was left to rue that missed opportunity after failing to hold her own serve, but then broke Rakimova to leave it all square at 2-2.
The following seven games all went to serve, but Burrage secured a decisive break in the 12th game to recover from 15-40 down and draw parity in the contest.
The decisive third set was equally as pulsating, and it looked like Burrage would be bowing out after being broken again in the fourth game to go 3-1 down.
But she responded brilliantly to break and then hold her own serve to move level at 3-3. However, it was anything but straightforward for Burrage, who was broken again and lost on Rakimova's serve to go 3-5 down.
She successfully held to keep herself in the match and delighted the home crowd by breaking Rakimova for a second time in the set to level things up at 5-5.
The remaining two games both went to serve, and meant a nerve-shredding second tie-break would follow. This would be comparatively straightforward for Burrage on this occasion, and was broken just once to progress through to the qualification final after winning the tie-break 7-4.
She will either face fellow Brit, Ranah Akua Stoiber or world No. 42 Jasmine Paolini.
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Heather Watson
Image credit: Getty Images
There was also good news for Heather Watson, who also progressed through to the qualification final after world No. 50 Yulia Putintseva was forced to retire in the second set.
Watson cruised to a 6-3 win in the first set, but was 4-3 down in the second when the Kazakh was forced to withdraw, and leaves the Brit to face a qualification final against Camila Osorio of Colombia on Sunday.
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