Svitolina into second round with rout of Voskoboeva

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Elina Svitolina was quickly into the second round of the Australian Open Monday. The 13^th ranked tennis star dispatched Galina Voskoboeva of Kazakhstan in a 6-0, 6-2 straight sets match on Show Court Three on the ground of Melbourne Park. The 11^th seed carried with her a well-rounded service scoring 70 total points despite committing six unforced errors.

This was a third meeting for the two tennis stars where they hold a win on one another. Svitolina got her in straight sets at the Paris tournament in 2014 with this one coming three years later. The Ukrainian ran well at the Brisbane tournament before losing to eventual champion Karolina Pliskova. She decided to take the next week off to warm up for the season’s first major. The Kazak more than qualified for the Open despite losing at both Shenzhen and Hobart. The 32-year-old hoped that despite going in against the new world number 13 she would still have some ways of getting an upset against Svitolina.

She challenged the world number 13 right from the start forcing deuce with her through four breaks. The Ukrainian gained every advantage till the time came for her to put down the win and her first break that took nine minutes. She still saw a fight on her hands but despite having to earn the wins on deuce, Svitolina jumped to a 3-0 with cheers from the crowds and plenty to be happy about. The deuce draws continued in the fourth with Voskoboeva doing everything she could to get a win.

The Ukrainian didn’t allow her room to get the job done taking another for a 4-0 lead. She made it 5-0 with a break of serve against the Kazak getting two game points in the process. On her serve in the sixth, Svitolina had a lot of trouble locking down the advantage against the Kazak. She gained leverage at times that had both of them tugging for the game win. They went to six breaks before Svitolina played for the set on her fourth attempt that gave her the set in 38 minutes.

Svitolina consolidated her success in the opening set to run the table early against the Kazak. The 13^th ranked tennis star picked up the break before holding well on the serve. The third was a battle from Voskoboeva who wanted nothing more than to avoid the embarrassment of being skunked on court. She held off the high ranked Ukrainian to not only hold serve for the first time but get herself on the board.

It was the last one she’d see for the match as Svitolina got right back to work rushing through the remainder of the set. She took the next three games attempting to get the break but Voskoboeva was perfect in the seventh scoring a second hold with perfection. It was up to the Kazak to hold off the 22-year-old or face a quick end to the fight. She did indeed see the conclusion come her way despite gaining two points on Svitolina. The Ukrainian delivered a high drive for match point which she won on a corner shot ending things in one hour and eight minutes.

Svitolina’s drive allowed her to recover from the double faults on court and the ability to score on more points than the opposition. A few tweaks could be a good thing before facing the winner between Julia Boserup and Francesca Schiavone of Italy.