Sierra, best known for her run to the fourth round of Wimbledon last year as a lucky loser—the first woman in the Open Era to do that—was next up against Jessica Bouzas Maneiro, and it was anything but straightforward.
After facing a point to go down an early double break serving at 1-3, 30-40, Sierra won 10 of the next 13 games to build a 6-4, 5-2 lead, seemingly cruising to victory.
The match turned on a dime from there, as the errors started piling up for the 21-year-old Argentine, while Bouzas Maneiro started hitting all the right spots. The Spaniard won five games in a row to take the second set, 7-5.
But there was one last momentum shift to come, and it was a big one, as Sierra found her range one more time and reeled off six games in a row for a 6-4, 5-7, 6-0 victory.
“She’s an amazing player and I knew it was going to be really tough,” Sierra said of Bouzas Maneiro afterwards.
“I just tried to focus on my game. I was doing really well, then at 5-2 in the second set I wasn’t doing too well. I’m really proud that I kept going and won it in the third set.”
