Elina Svitolina remained focused and balanced to win her opening round in Japan. The 22-year-old handled Coco Vandeweghe once again winning in straight sets 6-3,6-4 in the first round of the Toray Pan Pacific Open at Ariake Tennis Forest Tuesday. With the speed of the court and the importance of not playing in the rain, Svitolina was able to begin a tournament and come out swinging.
The two met in Dubai twice in their careers with the Ukrainian getting the best of Vandeweghe each time. Svitolina won a three-setter against the American back in February in the quarterfinals on the way to an increase of her rank. Despite falling out since the Olympics, getting a good start in Japan might serve her well to finish the season on a high note.
Both played to hold service in the opening pair of games with Vandeweghe struggling to lock up a win. The American had trouble holding her end as Svitolina charged for the break on unforced errors. It took three breaks to prevent a two-game deficit keeping the match even. The third was another show of Vandeweghe’s trouble with unforced errors battling them with good shots across the court. Despite her attempts to get the break, she was unable to counter the Ukrainian who was in control of service.
The American gained control in the fifth becoming more aggressive in the rallies that left the 22-year-old vulnerable. Vandeweghe used the tactics to her advantage to secure the first break of the match. The two remained even through six with Svitolina answering with a break as well making the next moves on court critical to who would walk away with the set.
After another tie through eight games, the 22-year-old Ukrainian jumped ahead in the ninth never looking back taking the set 6-3 after 42 minutes of action. Unforced errors from the American hindered her first serve percentage below 50 percent with a second serve scoring just 7 of 19 points from it. With Svitolina performing to better standards her work in the second had the hints of dominating to victory.
She had Vandeweghe on her from the start of the second set showing tremendous improvements to the first serve. The rest of her game continued to suffer opening the door for Svitolina to play well on the returns and gain points on and off her own service games. After another level pegging through eight games, the world number 20 put on the afterburners and coasted to a 6-4 win in the second capping an important first round win after 94 minutes of play.
With her first round out of the way, Svitolina would see an increase to the difficulty facing Russia’s Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the second round Wednesday.
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