Tuesday's action in Thailand Open delivered some great emotions, especially due to an epic match-up against Heather Watson and Yulia Putintseva. British player made an upset on tournament's seed #2, defeating the favorized Kazakh in three-hours long match 5-7 6-4 7-6.
Putintseva - one of two players from top 50 entering the WTA 250 tournament in Hua Hin, was a favorite of this match with an average odd 1.31. She was the first one to move into the lead, earning the break in third game, but Watson responded one game later. After a few following games with confident holds, the decisive games of first set, starting from 9th one were really tight and both players produced chances to take this set into their own account. Watson had the first setpoint in 10th game, but Putintseva hold her serve and gained a break in another game. Seed #2 saved two breakpoints in 12th game and held a long and tight game after 5 deuces.
Second set was a sign of Watson coming back to this match with winning first 4 games easily, moving into comfortable lead. Following games in this set were really shaky and both players were very vulnerable on serve, but it was Watson who grabbed this set with a score 6-4 where 7 out of 10 games were finished with a break.
Deciding set started simillary well for Watson who earned early break and moved into 3-0 lead. The Brit was also in the lead with a score 5-3, but did not manage to close out the match, which was settled in the tiebreak a few minutes later. Watson started it on the front foot, gaining double mini-break advantage quickly. Putintseva was trying to close the gap, but it was quite too late, as Watson crossed the line with a 7-5 score in a tiebreak, exactly after 3 hours of the intensive match full of exciting action and plot twists.
While second highest seeded player is already out of tournament, the headline player of the field has moved into next round in confident style. Bianca Andreescu defeated Harriet Dart 6-3 6-4. The Canadian faced some troubles with closing out the match, as she was leading 5-1 in second set and allowed her opponent to make up the double-break gap. That not discouraged Andreescu though, as she put a stamp on her victory with a decisive break in the last game.
Another three-setter was needed to decide a result of match between seed #5 - Marta Kostyuk, who was playing against En Shuo Liang, ranked at 364th place in WTA ranking. Kostyuk was a huge favorite of this match, but the opening set brought a surprise with Liang moving into the lead after winning the intense tiebreak 9-7. The upset did not materialize though, at since then Kostyuk found the level which was enough to avoid the surprise, winning the match with a score 6-7 6-3 6-0.
Linda Fruhvirtova has not failed in the role of big favorite in her first round match against Bethanie Mattek-Sands. 17 years-old Czech did not give too much chance for her 20 years older opponent, as the WC receiver managed to take away just 4 games from Fruhvirtova who needed just 64 minutes to advance into next round.
