Wimbledon 2012: Petrova won the dramatic battle

The Russian tennis player fought back from a break down in the third set of a 3 hour and 3 minute-clash. The match was interrupted due to darkness on Wednesday at 6:4, 5:5.

"Now I feel that it was useful for me, that the match was interrupted due to darkness. Petrova played extra tennis; I ought to play perfectly to have a chance. Today was different. For a long time I directed the game, also got a break advantage in the final set. Unfortunately cause of a bad luck I failed to win my next service game and in the end I lost the whole match. Maybe Petrova was lucky, that she started serving in the final set. She played more calmly, when she hold the serve. This was the case in last game…I fought hard; all in all, we played a good game, but of course, there is still room for improvement. It was a great experience to play in Wimbledon, which is one of my favorite tournament "- said the 69th ranked Timea Babos.

The 69th ranked Hungarian teen started encouragingly, but lost her serve from 40-15, she couldn’t save the second break point. Petrova began with a huge swing, hits 11 winners in the first four games. Timi also played good tennis, rarely made mistakes, gathered points with excellent attacks.

But the routine Petrova’s serves remained stable, so her rival couldn’t reach for break point. Timi several times made two receiver points, once there was 40-40, but not more.

It was a high quality game, and remained in the second set. Petrova did not sit back, but this time she had less winners. Timi kept up to 2:2, but then lost serve again, but she didn’t give up! The Hungarian player reached break point at 3:4, she used the opportunity. Then Timi won her own service game, and after that Petrova equalized smoothly. The referee then opted to continue the battle on Thursday because of the darkness.

Timea Babos played great tennis on Wednesday, had 7 aces, 24 winners and 1 unforced error. Petrova had 5 aces, 21 winners and 11 unforced errors.

On the next day Timi easily held her serve, Petrova relatively smoothly equalized. In the tie-break the Hungarian teen played brilliant! She quickly moved to a 4-0 lead, and confidently verified the big advantage. Came the all-important third act, which was an amazing “thriller”.

The second set gave Timi a psychological advantage, and she lived with it after 1:1. She broke second time the Russian, and increased the lead to 3:1 in a 15-minute game. Petrova had two break point, but this time without success.

Then Timi’s next service game was a promising, but finally the Russian broke again, equalized to 3:3. After this Petrova was constantly one step ahead, had two match points at 6:5. Timi saved both of them, and at 8:7 also hold twice the similar chance. But the more fortunate Petrova eventually won the fifth opportunity, so she advanced to the third round.

Timi said goodbye to this year's Wimbledon Grand Slam competition.