Bychkova wins in semifinals

If Saturday’s semifinal match between Lindsay Lee-Waters and Carly Gullickson was a marathon, then Ekaterina Bychkova’s romp over Lilia Osterloh was a sprint by comparison in the Boyd Tinsley USTA Women’s $50,000 Tennis Championships.

The 24-year-old Russian dominated from wire to wire, bolting to this morning’s finals with a 6-0, 6-2 victory over Osterloh at Boar’s Head Sports Club.

Today’s championship will be the first-ever meeting between the Moscow native and American Lee-Waters, who survived a three-set shootout over fellow American and former champion Gullickson.

For Bychkova, Saturday was all about keeping momentum. It was her fourth consecutive win in as many days at the Tinsley, a welcome relief that ended an eight-month drought in stringing together more than two wins in a row.

In getting to today’s final, Bychkova has not dropped a single set in the tournament. Once ranked No. 66 in the world, she had slipped to No. 172 coming to the Charlottesville event.

“I am very happy because this is my first final in the last two-and-a-half years,” Bychkova said. “It has given me confidence. I will try my best to win [today].”

The only remaining seeded player, Bychkova (No. 4) was in complete control in racing through a 6-0 first set, breaking Osterloh three times. Using a booming serve (sixth-fastest on the women’s tour), the strong Russian only experienced a slight hiccup the entire match.

Up 1-0 in the second set, after breaking Osterloh once again, Bychkova fell behind 30-love before serving her way back to deuce in the match’s longest game. Osterloh pulled it out to tie the second set 1-1, then won her serve to go up 2-1.

From that point onward, Bychkova returned to form and swept through the next five games without a flaw, winning two more service breaks from Osterloh, ranked No. 274 in the world.

Bychkova said that she relaxed after winning the first seven games of the match, temporarily lost focus, but regained her concentration once Osterloh won two straight games in the second set.

“Lilia started to play long rallies and was more aggressive,” Bychkova said. “I was not ready to run that much, but I had to tell myself, ‘Come on, now you have to run.’”

Osterloh, who said she was delighted to make it to the semis after missing most of the last six months due to injury, noted that she struggled somewhat with Bychkova’s blistering serve.

“I wasn’t making first serves and she was hitting big first serves, so I was on the defensive right away,” Osterloh said. “[Bychkova] really took me out of my comfort zone, so all the credit to her.”

While Bychkova said she doesn’t like to run that much on the clay surface, she didn’t have any difficulty in doing so. Osterloh attempted to get the ball deeper to Bychkova’s forehand, but the Russian seemed to get to everything.

It was only the second time the two had played, Osterloh winning the first meeting, something that

lingered in Bychkova’s mind.

“I came into the match thinking I would have to fight for every point, but I just wanted to win face to face with her,” Bychkova said. “She was pretty confident, forehand, backhand, it doesn’t matter. Even on a clay court it’s not easy to get her down the line.”

Bychkova found another effective weapon though, lob shots and high returns that seemed to give Osterloh problems.

She isn’t sure what her plan will be against Lee-Waters today, a somewhat unknown opponent to her. Bychkova did watch some of Lee-Waters’ win over Gullickson and caught glimpses of her play throughout the week.

“I know she is hitting the ball hard,” Bychkova said of her opponent. “She’s aggressive and not afraid to take risks.”

Today’s championship will pit two former top 100 ranked players that haven’t visited the singles winner’s circle in quite some time.

“It’s always good to win,” Bychkova said. “I will try to show all I can do.”