8th seed Cristina Bucsa squares off against America’s Alycia Parks in the semifinals of the WTA Andorra Open on Saturday.
Bucsa did not have a great time in the last tournament she played at the ITF event in Valencia but she has turned things around fantastically in Andorra.
She began the tournament with a great performance in the first set against Lina Glushko. The Spaniard had to dig deep to win the second set and finish the match 6-1, 7-6 (7-1). In the round of 16, she defeated Kateryna Baindl with a thumping performance. Bucsa won the match 6-3, 6-3. The 24-year-old faced a stiff test in the quarterfinals against second seed Alison Van Uytvanck. Bucsa came back from a set down to win the match 3-6, 6-3, 6-4. In the final set, Bucsa took a 5-2 lead but the Belgian star bounced back to make things tight at 5-4. Eventually, Bucsa held her nerves to close out the match in her service game.
The 21-year-old has had a couple of grueling encounters in the competition so far but she has shown a lot of grit and determination to persevere.
In the round of 32, she defeated fourth seed Linda Noskova in a three-set thriller 7-6 (7-5), 2-6, 6-2. Parks followed it up with a comprehensive win against Oceane Dodin in the round of 16. The hard-hitting Parks pulled off another hard-fought win against Sabine Lisicki in the quarterfinals. Parks won the match 7-6 (7-4), 4-6, 6-3. In three matches so far, Parks has fired in 46 aces and will hope to use her serves to good effect against Bucsa.
The head-to-head scoreline currently stands at 0-0 as the two players have not faced each other as yet.
Prediction: Cristina Bucsa to win in three sets.
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