After Julia Grabher had to work hard in her opening game at the WTA 250 tournament in Rabat (Mar) with Belgian Ysilane Bonaventure and go through three sets, the Vorarlberg native did not show any weaknesses in the eighth final duel with Turkey’s Cagla Buyukakcay and sat down in two sets after 1:48 hours of play with 6: 1 and 7: 6 (4).
The 26-year-old from Dornbirn made it clear from the first rally that she definitely wants to reach the quarter-finals of the $259,000 clay court tournament in Morocco. Breaks to 2:0 and 5:1 quickly bring the army athlete to win the first set.Sentence balls repelledIn the second round, Grabher missed a break chance right at the beginning. In return, the 33-year-old Buyukakcay takes her serve and, after winning another game, pulls away to 3-0. But Grabher fights back, manages the re-break and makes it 3:3. When the score is 5: 6, the Vorarlberg woman can then fend off two set balls and saves herself in the tie-break, where she uses her second match point, has the upper hand with 7: 4 and improves her tie-break balance to 7: 4 in 2023. Premiere awaits in the quarter-finals Grabher now meets the top seeded Italian Martina Trevisan, who had a lot more trouble than expected in the round of 16 with the Croatian qualifier Jana Fett (WTA No. 266). It was only after 2:34 hours that Trevisan, who is ranked 26th in the WTA world rankings, was able to leave the clay court as a 7:5, 7:5 winner. For Grabher, meeting the 29-year-old Florentine is a first.
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