People often notice just the perks of being a tennis pro, frequently forgetting the inevitable grueling aspect of the game. It got largely unnoticed by the media, but world No.283 Olga Savchuk played three matches within just 24 hours and to top things off, the matches were in two distant locations – Sweden and Turkey.
After finishing runner-up in the women’s doubles final alongside mom on tour Tatjana Maria to opponents Kiki Bertens and home favorite and singles champion Johanna Larsson at the Swedish Open in Bastad, Ukraine’s Savchuk flew to Istanbul and won two qualifying matches one after the other, first against Zhaoxuan Yang and then earned her place in the main draw with a three-setter against Sara Tomic. Savchuk entered the qualifying draw of the $250,000 TEB BNP Paribas Istanbul Cup as an alternate.
The Bastad doubles final started on Sunday at 16:45, lasted one hour and 18 minutes, and on Monday at 12:00 (i.e. 11:00 Bastad time), Savchuk already played her first match in Istanbul. The second match in Istanbul was scheduled shortly afterwards, at 15:30.
In the first round of Istanbul, Savchuk faces world No.61 Mona Barthel, finalist at the recently-finished Swedish Open. As I can see in Tuesday’s schedule, Savchuk is finally having a day off. (photo: Jimmie48)
Wow! What an iron woman. Good thing she won both matches and she’ll have a day off tomorrow. Good luck on her!
Emman Damian, we’ll see what she’ll do today against Barthel. They’ll take the court soon.
Wow, we tend to hear about the glamorous side of the sport, traveling, good food, beautiful locals and lots of frequent flyer miles. This tells me tennis is not always so glam, but can rather be cruel once in a while. I hope she does well this tourney.
I bet it is not surprising for her because all juniors have to go this way while competing at earlier stages of career