Tennis Classic of Macon features close quarterfinal matches

The Tennis Classic of Macon is living up to its name as every singles match Friday left a large crowd on edge.

Only top seeded Anna Tatishvili escaped without having to play three sets, and her match against Julia Glushko was fairly close at 6-1, 7-6. The other winners were unseeded Lesley Kerkhove, who defeated No. 8 seed Cagla Buyukakcay 2-6, 6-3, 6-2, No. 5 Rebecca Peterson, who defeated Jennifer Brady 2-6, 7-5, 6-1, and Julia Boserup, who beat No. 4 seed Nicole Gibbs 6-3, 6-7(3), 7-5.

The win for Kerkhove, who is from the Netherlands, was the second straight three-set win over a seeded player. Kerkhove defeated No. 2 seed Naomi Broady on Thursday.

"After I lost the first set, I knew I had to keep on fighting and do what's best for me," said Kerkhove, who will play Peterson in the semifinals Saturday. "I have been in the United States for five weeks, and at first, I was losing in the first or second round, so it is good to make it deeper in this tournament and end my trip on a positive note. I have enjoyed my time in Macon, and I have a great host family, but it is much easier to enjoy a tournament when you are playing well."

The Boserup-Gibbs match lasted more than three hours. Boserup jumped out to win the first set rather easily at 6-3. But Gibbs, a former NCAA champion, di not go away. Gibbs' serve was broken five times in the second set alone, but she was able to break Boserup the same amount of times and then dominated the tiebreaker to win the second set.

Both players held serve for their first two games of the third set, but Boserup broke Gibbs at 3-2 and then held serve to make it 5-2. But Gibbs one again battled back and held serve to make it 5-3, then broke Boserup and held serve again to even things up at 5. But Boserup answered the challenge, holding serve before then breaking Gibbs once again to advance on the 11th match point.

This story was originally published October 30, 2015 at 6:25 PM with the headline "Tennis Classic of Macon features close quarterfinal matches ."