Elina Svitolina put on her best at the Pan Pacific Open Thursday night. The world number 20 handled Russia’s Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova who opened the door at times in what turned into a 7-6(5), 6-4 straight sets win at Ariake Coliseum on the grounds of the Ariake Tennis Forest.
The two met twice spanning three years with the Russian winning both times. While both maintained high rankings over time, the young Ukrainian had been the one making the best progress. So far in Japan, she has dealt with adversity taking care of Coco Vandeweghe in the opening round. With a must win against Pavlyuchenkova the 22-year-old hoped to keep things going while they were on a high mark
She saw plenty of it from her end keeping her first serve strong against the world number 17. Pavlyuchenkova struggled early on the second serve racking up three double faults total. Despite the problems, she made a close race to the tenth game ending in a dead heat that required one of them to win seven. She watched Svitolina jump out ahead first in the 11th but later responded to force the tiebreaker.
Svitolina still felt the pressure on court as Pavlyuchenkova kept tight on points making it anyone’s set to win. It was the game changer on a key point that gave Svitolina a 6-5 lead just before she won the important seventh point ending the set in her favor. It was the longest set of the match but certainly not the end of competition for the 25-year-old.
Pavlyuchenkova was still giving it her all in the second set maintain a first serve percentage above 70 percent. Her second serve improved over time making it easier to compete against her slightly shorter opponent. Svitolina made the break after a tie in the eighth and never looked back putting focus on controlling both sides of her game that gave her the 6-4 win and the match after 99 minutes.
The double faults from Pavlyuchenkova played the difference maker in the second set as she committed four that were too many to recover from. While she tried to figure out her next step, Svitolina would prepare for a bout Friday against French Open Champion Garbine Muguruza in the quarterfinals.
Photo by: Toshifumi Kitamura/Getty Images
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