Shelby Rogers put up a great fight but couldn’t get the upset at the Brisbane International Wednesday. Sixth seeded Elina Svitolina of Ukraine defeated the American 7-5, 2-6, 7-5 on Show Court 1 at Queensland Tennis Centre.
The number six seed had defeated Rogers before in a three setter that turned into a runaway in Tokyo. The now 20-year-old coming off a solid win against Monica Puig left her in a good spot to dictate her own game. Rogers carried the same potential after showing her strength against Eugenie Bouchard. With an opponent of similar age but a higher degree of skill, the American came into the round of 16 with a challenge on her hands,
The challenge suddenly changed hands and went into Svitolina’s end where she was finding it difficult to answer on Rogers returns. She lost out on the lead and couldn’t come back to break in the second. The third didn’t go much better for her as the American fired hard shots winning her second break of the set and a 3-0 to her name. The winners racked up for the world number 59 who completely had a lock down on her opponent while the six seeded Ukrainian struggled on.
She had enough of being down and came back with a vengeance in the fifth making good on her service game as well as stellar defense. She won the love service to kill off the shutout for Rogers and begin her comeback. Svitolina picked up an important break in the sixth followed by a much-earned victory on service where she had to fight on deuce to get within a game. She completed the comeback winning again on serve before overtaking Rogers in the ninth with a break to take the lead away. The world number 14 had things going the way she wanted them with one game away from taking a much larger hold in the match.
Rogers wasn’t going down easily and proved it well in the tenth with a hold of serve that pushed the set to extra frames to determine a leader in the match. Svitolina got the ball to start the 11th and answered with a strong response to regain control. It was up to the American to win the 12th to force a tiebreaker or start from scratch in the second. She fell down a break in the game where a rally ended with Svitolina drop shooting the ball in close proximity to the net ending the set in 45 minutes.
Just when it looked as if Svitolina had things figured out to start the second, she was sorely mistaken. Rogers came out with her racket blazing taking the first three games by storm. It was due to mistakes from the Ukrainian that made it another easy runaway for the American. The fourth saw the sixth seed change the pace for her benefit getting on the board with a break. She consolidated it with a love service that ended with Rogers smashing the ball into an error.
The gap separated the two by a game with Rogers back on serve in the sixth. She brought down the dominance once again giving her a two-game lead on her opponent. It soon turned into a runaway for the American who picked up another break to serve for a chance at tying the match. With every effort left in the tank, Rogers pushed Svitolina to break down enough that forced the set to go to the distance. The set lasted 40 minutes with the American having a better first serve than her Ukrainian counterpart.
Svitolina knew that her game had to improve fast in order to get into the quarterfinals. She pressed Rogers through four games keeping ahead on the score while closing in on the ultimate goal. She took a step in the right direction with a hold of serve but Rogers answered in the sixth with a win that put her down two games. The deeper the set went, the tighter the fight got between the players. The 24-year-old gained the victory on break that put her back within reach and the possibility of an upset more than alive.
Rogers forced deuce with Svitolina on service with challenge calls coming into play. After a couple of breaks, The American locked down the win to level with the sixth seed and threaten onward. There was none to be seen in the ninth as Svitolina ran out to 40-0 to get things started. Rogers picked up a point but a return from her end landed wide of the court ending the battle with Svitolina one game from the match.
One game turned into two as Rogers killed any chance of her opponent walking away with the win just yet. The 24-year-old blasted out a 40-0 margin and never lost control in the tenth game. It was the response that forced both players to reach seven games or play onward to a tiebreak. Svitolina was first to act to start the 11th and did so with shots that couldn’t be returned easily. She gained the important 6-5 hold hoping that the momentum paid off while on the break.
With some intensive movements from behind the baseline to right in front of the net, Svitolina pushed herself to stay out front and get the match victory after 2 hours and 22 minutes on court. With so much energy played out against a non-ranked opponent, the world number 14 would have to hope for a positive opponent as she’ll await the winner between Ashleigh Barty of Australia and world number one Angelique Kerber of Germany.
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