KRUNIC ADDS TO UPSETS, SENDS KVITOVA PACKING
New York, Aug. 31: Serbia’s Aleksandra Krunic added her name to a list of anonymous figures to emerge from the Flushing Meadows shadows and step into the US Open spotlight with a shock 6- 4, 6- 4 win over Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova on Saturday.
With five of the top eight women’s seeds shown the exit there has been no safe place to hide for the tournament favourites.
One of the big criticism of the women’s game has been that it is too predictable but one look at the rankings confirms that is not the case at the year’s final grand slam with Bellis at 1,208, Krunic 145 and LucicBaroni 121.
Krunic, who aims to graduate from university in Serbia this year with a degree in economics, calculated her chances were best by concentrating on her own game and not worry about who was standing on the other side of the net and followed the plan with precision.
Certainly the 21- yearold Serb has earned straight As for her work at the US Open, which has included a second round win over American 27th seed Madison Keys.
“When you are playing the smaller tournaments all the time, I honestly didn’t know what to expect from myself at all,” said Krunic. “I don’t know my limits. Today I think I pushed myself to my total limits.
“Even I know that it was not Petra’s best day and she missed a lot. I don’t know if I made her miss with my game or not.
“But still if she would have played her best tennis I don’t think the outcome would be the same.
“I tried to keep the tactics that I have been given. Yeah, that was my only chance. Honestly, I didn’t expect it at all, for sure.” The diminutive Krunic was a blur as she sprinted across the court sliding into splits stretching for returns to the applause of the large crowd.