Danka Kovinic has been setting national milestones ever since she became the first player from Montenegro to compete on the WTA Tour in 2013, and sealed another after upsetting No.17 seed Emma Raducanu 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 in the second round of the Australian Open.
Kovinic, 27, had lost in the second round of six previous majors, but with the hard-fought victory became the first player representing Montenegro to make the last 32 at a Grand Slam. The World No.98 also sealed her fourth career Top 20 win - but her first on hard courts, and first on the major stage. She had previously defeated Roberta Vinci at Madrid 2016, Belinda Bencic at Rome 2020 and Petra Kvitova at Charleston 2021.
Having triumphed in the longest match of the tournament so far in the first round, beating Jang Su Jeong 6-3, 2-6, 6-4 in 3 hours and 9 minutes, Kovinic backed that up by winning the third longest in 2 hours and 38 minutes.
US Open champion and Australian Open debutante Raducanu suffered from blisters on her racquet hand throughout, making for a gripping and unusual contest packed with twists, turns and tactical adjustments.
History maker 🇲🇪@DankaKovinic upsets Emma Raducanu 6-4 4-6 6-3 to become the first player representing Montenegro to reach the third round of a Grand Slam.
— #AusOpen (@AustralianOpen) January 20, 2022
🎥: @wwos • @espn • @Eurosport • @wowowtennis #AusOpen • #AO2022 pic.twitter.com/wauKCPG1KU
Match management: Raducanu leapt to a quick 3-0 double-break lead thanks to an error-strewn start from Kovinic, but it was evident that the Briton's blisters were bothering her as early as the second changeover, when she took a medical timeout to get her racquet hand taped. Kovinic soon settled, too, and displayed both sweet touch on the drop shot and hefty power on the backhand to win five of the last six games of the set.
Raducanu was ailing, but her response in the second set made for an extraordinary passage of play as the 19-year-old demonstrated both her tenacity as a competitor and her intelligence in terms of ad hoc problem-solving. Unable to hit through her forehand, Raducanu resorted to exclusively slicing that wing for most of the set - a tactic that tied Kovinic up in knots.
Even when the play became predictable, Raducanu's scrambling ability meant that she was able to hang tough in defensive rallies. Short slices and drop shots pulled Kovinic into the forecourt, where the former World No.46 was at her weakest, losing 20 of her 35 net points in total as Raducanu picked her off with repeated passes. And when it came to all-court improvisation, the teenager had the control and vision to keep a step ahead of her opponent.
Level 🆙@DankaKovinic steps up to the plate 💥
— #AusOpen (@AustralianOpen) January 20, 2022
🎥: @wwos • @espn • @Eurosport • @wowowtennis #AusOpen • #AO2022 pic.twitter.com/ZbomGWuRrE
As the set drew on, Kovinic eventually adjusted, attacking with greater patience and purpose to level at 4-4 from 3-1 down. But Raducanu immediately responded by bringing back her drive forehand, catching Kovinic unawares and breaking for 5-4 with consecutive winners off that wing.
The deciding set was a test of Kovinic's fortitude, with a career-best Grand Slam showing on the line. Raducanu's tactics were unpredictable, but Kovinic possessed the greater weight of shot. She used it to superb effect to stave off four break points across her first two service games of the deciding set, coming up with some crucial overhead putaways to seize momentum.
Raducanu's backhand had been rock solid for the majority of the match, but it was the stroke that fell away in the third set. Eight of her 11 unforced errors in the decider came off that wing. Kovinic was able to find some of her best tennis to take advantage, breaking for 4-2 with a pinpoint lob and sealing her second match point with a glorious backhand winner down the line.
Head to Head
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Breakthrough for Kovinic in past 12 months: Kovinic made her Grand Slam debut as a 19-year-old at Roland Garros 2014, and went on to make WTA finals at Tianjin 2015 (losing to Agnieszka Radwanska) and Istanbul 2016 (losing to Cagla Buyukakcay).
But over the past year, she has delivered some of her best results. Last April, Kovinic upset Leylah Fernandez, Petra Kvitova and Ons Jabeur to reach her first WTA 500 final in Charleston. In June, she told Tennis Majors that her work with both a sports psychologist and at former ATP No.8 Janko Tipsarevic's Belgrade academy had been crucial to finding this form.
Calf and back injuries slowed Kovinic's progress last year, forcing her to withdraw from Wimbledon and the Tokyo Olympic Games. On returning in August, she would win only two of her last 10 matches of 2021.
"Basically only one good result was in Charleston last year," Kovinic told the press. "Everything else was really struggling and trying to recover my body for next events, which I wasn't really successful. I was rushing a little bit, so I never really healed my back injury. But I took some time during the pre-season to really take care of that, so hopefully that's in the past."
In the same Tennis Majors interview, the Herceg Novi native had named her ambitions as returning to the Top 50 and breaking the second-round barrier at a Slam. The second of those has been ticked off the list in style.
Kovinic on being a trailblazer: "It's my first time to be in the third round after so many years and it is, honestly, it is an amazing feeling because I really wanted this for so long," Kovinic said afterward. "And I'm so glad that I can be the first Montenegrin ever to make it to this round.
"In general, I'm very proud to be here and to represent Montenegro as the only player in WTA or ATP on tour. So I'm making these results and making history in tennis for Montenegro. It's a huge thing for me, and hopefully there will be many more kids, boys and girls, following my path in the future, which I really hope, and I will try to help them out to reach my level and to be even better than I am today."
Kovinic on the tactical challenge: "I'm the kind of player that I really want to focus on myself and to try to make my own game on the court," she said.
"So I knew some basic things about her, which my coach told me, and which I was trying to put in the court. The problem was in the second set when she started to change her game a little bit. Then I got confused - what's going on, if she can play or she cannot play or what's wrong with her forehand. Then once again when I started just to think about myself and to be focused on my own game, then I found composure again on the court, and the things got better."
Raducanu on blisters and adjustment: "I have been struggling with blisters since I started playing in Australia," said Raducanu, whose pre-season was hampered by testing positive for Covid-19. "Twenty-one days, no tennis, my hands got pretty soft. From day one, day two, I was getting blisters pop up here and there. This particular one has been with me for about five days.
"But I thought it was a pretty good learning experience for me. I discovered tools about myself and my game that I didn't know I had before, so I can take some positives even from this match.
"Anyone that knows me knows I do not hit slice forehands. Probably hit more in that match than I have in two, three years. That was definitely one thing I learned, that my slice forehand is not so bad and I have some sort of hand skills. That was a positive surprise, I would say, for myself. But also, I was just proud of how I kept fighting even in those situations where I was really struggling, can't really do much, but I just kept hanging in there.
"To get that second set with basically one shot I think, I can't believe it, really. I just know that I've got that fight in me. Even if I have got, like, one shot, I know that I can pull myself out of deep situations. Whereas, because I'm still young, I feel like I can learn a backhand, I can learn some sort of tactics - but it's quite hard to learn or teach someone that fight and grittiness to hang in there when things are pretty much all against you. So I'm quite proud of that."
That Romanian roar 🇷🇴🦁#AO2022pic.twitter.com/wUtZxleM8z
— wta (@WTA) January 20, 2022
Halep races past Haddad Maia to conclude second-round action
In the third round, Kovinic will take on Simona Halep, after the No.14 seed raced past Beatriz Haddad Maia 6-2, 6-0 in just 66 minutes.
The Romanian, runner-up in Melbourne to Caroline Wozniacki in 2018, is the only player remaining in the bottom half of the draw to have made the Australian Open final before. Scheduled as the second night match on Rod Laver Arena, Halep was at her most efficient in wrapping up a quick win.
The two-time major champion dropped just nine points on serve and never faced a break point. Supreme on both offence and defence, Halep offered Haddad Maia few options to get into the match, with a bruising 29-shot rally in the first set and a spectacular flicked forehand pass in the second particular highlights.
In total, Halep found 15 winners to 12 unforced errors, while the Brazilian struck only five winners to 22 unforced errors. Halep, who won her 23rd career title at Melbourne Summer Set 1 a fortnight ago, is on a seven-match winning streak and has won 13 of her past 14 matches dating back to her run to the final of last October's Transylvania Open.
