Kids Day in the morning, victory in the afternoon! Petra can do it all. We’ll be rooting for her tomorrow — if she keeps this up, a place in the final is well within reach.
Petra Marčinko was outstanding against third seed Mexico’s Renata Zarazue. She dominated from start to finish, winning 6:4, 6:3 to become the sole remaining Croatian player in the quarterfinals of the WTA Makarska Open hosted by Valamar. Tomorrow she faces 19-year-old Andorran Victoria Jimenez Kasintseva.
“I’m pretty tired — it was a mentally demanding match, but great, I played well. I managed to close it out the right way. There were a few ups and downs, but in the end it was fine,” said our young tennis player briefly after the match — a former world number one junior.
When asked whether she expects to win the tournament, she answered simply: “Always — but what will happen, I don’t know.”
Alongside our Petra’s sensational win, the story of the day is that last year’s champion and second seed American Katie Volynets was beaten convincingly by experienced German Mona Barthel, a former world number 23. The German wrapped it up in just one hour, winning 6:3, 6:1. Volynets clearly had more of a battle than expected in yesterday’s match against our Tena Lukas.
Petra Martić, unfortunately, came up short — despite looking in control early on. In one of the tournament’s most tense matches so far, she fell to Czech Sara Bejlek 4:6, 6:3, 6:4.
Tara Würth also put up a tremendous fight, coming within touching distance of the quarterfinals. In the end it was Latvia’s Darja Semenistaja who prevailed, 7:6 (6), 7:5.
TWO KIDS DAYS IN ONE TOURNAMENT
Tara Würth and Petra Marčinko had an unusual warm-up this morning. They happily accepted the invitation and joined the kids at the traditional Kids Day event on Kačićev Square in the heart of Makarska. Getting the kids excited in the centre of Makarska was no hard task at all.
The kids had no trouble keeping up with the top-level players. Balls were flying everywhere, there was plenty of laughter, great fun all around, and of course — a group photo to finish. The locals who had come to the square for their morning coffee joined in the spirit too, chasing down stray balls and tossing them back onto the improvised court. Once again, tennis brought all generations together.
The day before, the kids had already enjoyed tennis at another Kids Day event, this one held at the Makarska primary school Osnovna škola oca Petra Perice, which this year is also set to benefit from the tournament’s ticket proceeds.
