Magda Linette’s curse continues. Her reaction says it all
Magda Linette extended the black series of her first matches in WTA tournaments in Cincinnati. The Polish woman succumbed to the qualifier Ann Li, who is only 192nd in the world ranking and said goodbye to the competition. Her final reaction was very telling.
Since the end of Wimbledon, Magda Linette cannot say that her tennis adventure is going the way she wanted it to. In the recently concluded tournament in Montreal, she was reprimanded by Victoria Azarenka 6-3, 6-0 and was hoping to break the deadlock in Cincinnati. This did not happen and she will have to wait at least a year for the next chance. Her form is puzzling because during the aforementioned British Grand Slam she was able to win against really good opponents (Jil Teichmann, Barbora Strycova).
A perfect set gave nothing
Magda Linette has been coming to Cincinnati regularly since 2016 and has been eliminated four times in the qualifying rounds. When she did, she couldn’t break the deadlock in the first round and even lost to much lower ranked opponents. Something like this has never happened to her in any other tournament. When it seemed that this year’s edition of the competition was perfect to stave off fate, it came at the least expected moment.
The Polish woman played a match with the qualifier Ann Li, who had not won any match in the WTA main tournament until the match with the 31-year-old from Poznań, and her victories took place mainly in ITF and challenger competitions. There was little indication that the Polish woman would lose, especially since she won the first set perfectly 6:0, despite the fact that the 23-year-old regularly resisted our representative.
Magda Linette overboard the tournament in Cincinnati. Out of anger, she broke the racket
The situation of this year’s Wimbledon semi-finalist changed right after the second set started. Li won her game and then broke Linette. A clear difference in the game of the 23-year-old was visible during long exchanges, with which she had problems during the first set. The Polish woman made up for the loss at 3:1 for her rival. From then on, they went head to head and there was a tie-break in which they also played as equals. The 31-year-old made a mistake at 5-5, which tipped the scales in favor of the 23-year-old, who won the overtime 7-5.
This had a strong impact on the focus and psyche of the Polish woman. She lost the first five games of the third set, and when she lost the ball 5-0, she threw her racket on the court in a rage and broke it. After a while, Ann Li broke, but there was no chance to knock the American out of rhythm. In the end, Linette won one more serve, but lost the entire set 2-6 and consequently the entire match.
