Camilla Rahimova Loses in Semifinals for the Third Time in a Row at Bogota Tournament
Camilla Rahimova Loses in Semifinals for the Third Time in a Row at Bogota Tournament
Russian tennis player Camilla Rahimova suffered her third consecutive semifinal defeat at the Bogota tournament, falling to Czech player Marie Bouzkova. Despite a valiant effort, Rahimova's struggles with her serve, including multiple double faults, allowed Bouzkova to secure a straight-set victory. As a result, Rahimova will drop in the WTA rankings while Bouzkova advances to the final to face Colombian Maria Camila Osorio Serrano.

Double fault No. 10. Rahimova was screaming, throwing her racket, and lost the semifinal for the third time in a row.

Camilla, who once again stopped just steps away from the decisive match in Bogota, still can't make it to her first WTA-level final.

On the night of April 6-7 MSK, the WTA-250 tournament in Bogota, Colombia, held the semifinal matches. Up to this stage, one Russian tennis player reached the semifinals, namely 22-year-old Camilla Rahimova, seeded eighth. Rahimova, ranked 92nd in the world rankings, faced off against 25-year-old Czech player Marie Bouzkova (1), ranked 42nd in the world. In the quarterfinals, both players scored hard-fought victories. Bouzkova defeated Laura Siegemund (2:6, 6:2, 7:5), while Rahimova fought back from a set down to defeat Kristina Mladenovic 0:6, 6:4, 7:5.

The Bogota tournament seems to be a favorite for Rahimova. The Russian player had never reached a final at the WTA level before but had reached the semifinals twice, both times in the capital of Colombia! In 2022, Tatiana Maria stopped Camilla, and in 2023, it was Peyton Stearns. So in this current tournament, Rahimova was originally determined to break the curse and reach the final. Although she faced some challenges in the draw. In all three of her first matches in the tournament, she had to play three sets.

As for Bouzkova, who had never played against Rahimova before, she already had one title to her name. In 2022, the Czech player won the tournament in her home city of Prague. Her highest achievement in the Grand Slams was reaching the quarterfinals of Wimbledon in 2022. That same season, Marie managed to break into the top 25 of the WTA rankings.

At the start of the match, Rahimova struggled with her serve. In the third game, the Russian player made three consecutive double faults! Bouzkova took advantage of this and took a 2-1 lead with a break. In the next game, the Czech player confirmed her lead, though not without some difficulties, to make it 3-1. Camilla managed to improve her serve slightly (although her first serve percentage was still terrible at 33%) and started winning her games, but the same was true for Marie. Bouzkova looked more confident on serve, hitting four aces in the set and comfortably serving out the game at 6-4 in 54 minutes.

Rahimova started the second set in the worst possible way. Camilla made two more double faults (bringing her total to six at that point) and practically handed a break to her opponent. Just like in the first set, Bouzkova immediately consolidated the break, finishing the game with an ace, making it 2-0. The game then saw some semblance of variety: the Russian player broke back, and in the fourth game, the Czech player made several errors and failed to win a single point on serve, allowing Rahimova to level the score at 2-2.

In the fifth game, Camilla, after her eighth double fault at 15-15, screamed in frustration and threw her racket on the court. She couldn't save that game as Bouzkova once again broke her serve on the third break point. To her credit, Rahimova didn't give up and in the seventh game, trailing 2-4, she saved a double break point (hidden match points). In the eighth game, after Marie made two double faults following a 40-15 lead, Rahimova used a break point to level the score at 4-4.

In the ninth game, Bouzkova hit an incredible shot to the corner behind Rahimova on a break point. However, the Czech player couldn't serve for the match, making two more double faults, including one on a break point, to make it 5-5. The players then proceeded to the tiebreak without incident. In the tiebreak, Bouzkova led 4-1 with two mini-breaks—after the fifth point, Rahimova, after hitting the net, once again threw her racket in anger. Following that, Marie closed out the match against Camilla (who had a total of 10 double faults, including on match point) with a score of 6-4, 7-6 (7-2) in 2 hours and 16 minutes.

So Rahimova lost in the semifinals of the Bogota tournament for the third time in a row. She will now drop four spots in the WTA rankings to 96th. Bouzkova will face Colombian Maria Camila Osorio Serrano (6) in the title match, who will likely receive incredible support from the crowd. In the semifinals, Osorio Serrano, ranked 85th in the world, defeated 36-year-old Sara Errani 7-6, 6-4.

 

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