KAROLINA Pliskova has survived an almighty scare against Jelena Ostapenko, needing three sets, two hours and 20 minutes, and a couple of match point saving moments to post a victory over the Latvian. The Czech ninth seed had to save three match points in the 10th game of the the third set, before recovering to win in a deciding tiebreakers, 4-6 7-5 7-6.

“Just proud, I think mostly, how I fought,” Pliskova said post-match. “I’m just happy that I stayed in there and fought till the end.”

The match was clearly the match of the day, with the Czech getting a fair chunk of play in before rain impacted matches across the Rome clay courts. The pair has had quite the battles over the years, with Plisova extending the head-to-head lead out to 5-3 after the victory against the former Top 5 talent. It did not look like it early on as Ostapenko dominated early to go to a 4-0 lead with two breaks before the Czech broke back twice herself to level at 4-4, only for a third break for the Latvian to win the opening set 6-4.

In an equally tight second set, Pliskova failed to serve out the set at first opportunity when 5-4 up, but did so at 6-5 instead after breaking the Latvian in the next game. The third set went down to the wire in a tiebreaker, and after the Czech saved those three match points, strolled to victory with seven of the eight points played in the tiebreaker to win, 7-1.

Now Pliskova will take on the only other opponent to fully complete her match on the day, with Croatian Petra Martic taking care of American Jessica Pegula in straight sets. Martic won 7-5 6-4 in one hour and 40 minutes to advance through to the final four and book her chance of a final spot if she can take out the ninth seed.

“The key was to overtake, to not let her play and take control of the points of the rally and just make me run,” Martic said post-match. “So I tried to do that before her. I tried to use my serve. Obviously she didn’t like my kick so much, so I knew I had to really be sharp on those first shots after return of serve and not let her overtake. I think I did that pretty well for the most part.”

In other results, world number one Ash Barty was only on court 29 minutes, racing to a first set win of 6-4 against American teenager Coco Gauff, before having to retire with a right arm injury following the third game of the second set. While many retire being down, Barty was clearly in control of the match, but felt the pain had become too much to risk it with Roland Garros coming up on the horizon.

“It became worse while we were playing,” Barty said of the pain in her arm. “So I think that’s the challenging thing is to make the decision to stop. It’s never nice. It’s the thing that I hate the most is not being able to finish a tennis match.

“But the pain was becoming too severe, so it was important that I listen to my body and of course try and do the right thing, knowing that we have a Grand Slam in two weeks’ time.”

Gauff reached her first WTA 1000 semi-final with the win, and will take on either fifth seed Elina Svitolina or 15th seed Iga Swiatek who face off in the quarter finals after a rain-affected day forced their matches to be postponed.

INTERNAZIONALI BNL D’ITALIA QUARTER FINALS RESULTS:

Coco Gauff (USA) defeated [1] Ash Barty (AUS) 4-6 1-2
[5] Elina Svitolina (UKR) vs. [15] Iga Swiatek (POL)
[9] Karolina Pliskova (CZE) Jelena Ostapenko (LAT) 4-6 7-5 7-6
Petra Martic (CRO) defeated Jessica Pegula (USA) 7-5 6-4

Picture credit: WTA/Jimmie48