WTA Austin Open: Volynets beats Potapova in second round after trailing 0-5 in deciding set

In January, Volynets qualified for the Australian Open and reached the third round at a Grand Slam tournament for the first time.

FILE PHOTO: American Katie Volynets knocked out third-seeded Russian Anastasia Potapova to reach the quarterfinals in Austin on Wednesday.

Katie Volynets saved a match point and grabbed the last seven games to come back and beat third-seeded Anastasia Potapova 5-7, 6-2, 7-5 at the WTA250 event in Austin on Wednesday to reach her first WTA quarterfinal.

Volynets, a 21-year-old born in California who is ranked 92nd, was just a point from defeat while trailing 5-0 in the third set and facing a break point. But she claimed the next three points to hold serve there and was on her way to the big turnaround.

“At 0-5, I was really like: ‘Please, not a bagel! I really don’t want to get bageled.’ And then I get that first game, and then I get more confidence rolling into the second game,” Volynets said. “And honestly, it was kind of quick.”

She wound up taking 27 of the match’s last 32 points.

“The match,” Volynets said, “was definitely a roller coaster.”

In January, Volynets qualified for the Australian Open and reached the third round at a Grand Slam tournament for the first time.

Now Volynets will face Peyton Stearns — who won the NCAA singles championship for the University of Texas last year — for a spot in the semifinals at the inaugural edition of the hard-court tournament in the state capital. Stearns got past Mirjam Bjorklund 6-3, 7-5 on Wednesday night in a match between two wild-card recipients.

READ: Novak Djokovic targets elusive gold medal at Paris Olympics

The highest-seeded woman left in the field, No. 4 Sloane Stephens, beat qualifier Heather Watson 6-4, 6-4. Stephens, the 2017 U.S. Open champion, will meet 88th-ranked Varvara Gracheva in the quarterfinals. It’s a rematch of a contest won by Stephens last week in Merida, Mexico.

Gracheva, who eliminated top-seeded Magda Linette in the first round in Austin, advanced on Wednesday by defeating Anna Blinkova 6-3, 6-7 (5), 6-1 in an all-Russian matchup.