Australian Open 2019: Elina Svitolina eases into the second round with a solid win
Elina Svitolina got through comfortably in her opening round match at the Australian Open on Tuesday. The strong Ukrainian dominated against Viktorija Golubic in straight sets to win 6-1, 6-2 on 1573 Arena on the grounds of Melbourne Park. Svitolina had 25 winners and converted on plenty of breakpoints that was a textbook victory in her book.
Since winning the WTA championship, the 24-year-old Ukrainian decided that after her defeat at Brisbane, that she would focus solely on the Open. Svitolina put defending her title aside to make her seventh shot on the blue courts the best it could be.
Last year, she made it to the quarterfinals, which became a personal best for the world number seven. With three overall quarterfinal finishes at Grand Slams, the sixth seed would go for more as her limits allowed.
She opened service against Golubic holding it together before breaking her in the longest game of the set. With the Swiss player coming back to force deuce, she challenged Svitolina through a few breaks and seven minutes of play before losing on her serve. She broke back against the Ukrainian and saw nothing more from there.
Svitolina scored a double break in the fourth before she coasted through the next three games to take the set in 31 minutes. Despite having a 46 per cent rate on the serve, she kept the unforced errors down and had the power behind her to stay focused going forward.
She conducted the start of the second with a break of Golubic that linked together with another show of strength. Svitolina put together a lot of aspects in the rallies with the Swiss player to go up 2-0 with force. A surprise moment for Svitolina came when she was shut down in the third but quickly brushed it aside. The 24-year-old knew her current status and pressed forward to continue in the right direction with a break in the fourth.
Golubic found a way to keep in touch with Svitolina after five, but she was far from matching the power that Svitolina carried on. She captured another hold in the six before breaking Golubic thereafter, giving her a shot at dictating the end of the match. She handled everything that the Swiss star threw at her to get closer to the goal.
An ace from the sixth seed gave her match point which almost came on a lob shot but didn’t get over the net. She was left with one to go, which came on a long ball return landing long of the baseline ending 61 minutes on the court.
With plenty of positive actions coming from her game, she’ll eye the second round await the winner between Viktoria Kuzmova or fellow compatriot Kateryna Kozlova on Thursday.