US Open: Svitolina wins third round match in straight sets
Elina Svitolina
Elina Svitolina delivered a strong victory at the US Open on Friday afternoon. The Ukrainian remained calm and focused to win against Qiang Wang in a 6-4, 6-4 score at Louis Armstrong Stadium at the Billy Jean King National Tennis Center. It was the second time that she achieved a third-round win that put her back into the round of 16.
The Ukrainian had to regroup in her fight against Tatiana Maria to come out with a straight sets win in the second round. She would look for three to be a charm against the Chinese star who has yet to face anyone in the top ten. They’ve played in the hard courts before where Svitolina was forced to play three sets in her wins at Indian Wells and Dubai over the past two seasons. With the expectation that she would have to do so again, the fifth seed would try to stay focused and keep the dictation on her side of the court.
She led the way with the service holds through three before a break chance gave her a 3-1 lead over Wang. She was in her comfort zone on serve in the fifth to widen the gap to three games over the Chinese up and comer. Wang avoided going a double break down and held to sit two down from Svitolina looked to stay dialed in but faced some big hits on the break to lose her first service game.
Wang was still fighting well, keeping level with the Ukrainian in the eighth, but the seventh seed had enough of being trailed so close and held before breaking Wang to complete the set in 31 minutes. The lead she had was due to unforced errors from Wang that came in the last few games. It helped increase Svitolina’s first serve percentage to finish a comfortable set.
Wang started the second set with the desire to get on the board before it got out of her hands. With Svitolina having five backhanded errors, it gave Wang the chance to win it and consolidate it with a hold of serve in the second.
Witnessing the sudden change got the seventh seed back in check to push herself to a lead before getting it done with a forehand winner. Wang struck back with two aces on serve in the fourth that maintained her grip of the set. Svitolina made sure to hold in the fifth to keep Wang within range.
A serve to love got her back to level terms in the sixth with the offense still at a rate where she could handle the situation. Wang was unable to keep up with the pace and created unforced errors that gave Svitolina a 5-3 lead to serve for the match. Wang wasn’t ready to give in so easily delivering with big returns away from the Ukrainian to earn another break.
It was a one-game margin with Wang under pressure. She made back to back errors hitting it too much to land long of the baseline. A wide return gave Svitolina three match points that were secured on an easy net front lob back across the court to end it in one hour and nine minutes.
“I gave a little chance to come back into the match and in the second she stepped up her game and I was just trying to react very quickly and wait for my chance and I think I earned my chance by playing very aggressive,” Svitolina said to Andrew Krasny after the match. She’ll need a lot going into Sunday where she’ll face Anastasija Sevastova who has been a threat to everyone in the late stages of the tournament.
“She’s a tricky player,” Svitolina said about the Latvian. “She slices a lot and mixes up lots of shots so I’ll have to really be on top of my game and try to recover for it but enjoy my win today.”