If you look up ‘Yulia Putintseva’ in the dictionary it probably says ‘heart on sleeve’.
No one shows more emotion than the Latvian on her Centre Court debut as she downs world number two Naomi Osaka 7-6 6-2 defeating the two time major champion for the second time in three weeks and the third time in her career.
During the match I described the Latvian as bouncing around the court. She feeds off the emotion and the crowd warmed to hear.
Yulia does have history of maybe over-spilling at times with the emotion but when her tennis on point she is a joy to watch and you can’t help but enjoy watching her play.
I was a little bit surprised that Naomi wasn’t more prepared for the Putintseva game as she faced in a couple of weeks earlier in Birmingham but at the same point take nothing away from Yulia.
The biggest problem she created for Naomi was off that backhand slice. I love a slice, I think it’s so underused in tennis.
It gives you nothing. On the receiving end of it what shot can you play with interest on it?
None. It’s a game changer and Naomi tried time and time again to get back involved but couldn’t conjure up anything.
Naomi did find some joy at the net but a point during the second set at 2-3 where she had a break back point but put the open court volley wide and went on to trail 2-4 in the second set which sealed her fate.
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