Elina Svitolina reached her dream of being a number one seed to come out of it winning the Taiwan Open Sunday afternoon. She held off the strength of China’s Shuai Peng to win 6-3, 6-2 at Taipei Arena capturing her fifth career WTA title. The 22-year-old Ukrainian had 19 winners and six aces that made being the top seeded player to win.
Both vied for their first title of the season on similar paths meeting for just the second time in their careers. Peng holds the lone victory over the head of the Ukrainian but she also holds a stronger performance again top players. The Chinese star took care of Lucie Safarova in an impressive straight sets win that had the Taiwanese contingency rooting heavily for her. Their match in New Haven back in 2014 was more of a formality coming into the tournament. With 280 points on the line for either player, the previous history would be put aside to see who would take the lead. While Svitolina tries for her fifth, Peng wishes more than ever to gain a second singles title to the one she won two years ago.
She started off with a strong attack both on serve and returning the ball. It allowed her to get a 2-0 hold pulling off a triple break that clearly made a statement to the number one seed. Svitolina got on the board with an important break that moved her into contention with Peng hoping to consolidate on service. Svitolina put together a comfortable outing in the fourth gaining her a love service to level the score.
Peng remained in a fighting stance landing some spectacular winners across court to open up her lead significantly. Despite Svitolina gaining a point in the game, the Chinese star held her end together to take back the lead. Svitolina made her service count in the sixth landing the first ace of the match followed by a smashed winner. The world number 13 recorded her second ace before matching the score at three all holding two points on Peng.
The Ukrainian thought she might have to match the skills of Peng after the seventh but her tenacity saw her fight back to deuce in the game. Svitolina fought hard for the advantage getting it before a key break point gave her the acquired leverage she worked hard for. The service chance in the eighth saw the 22-year-old push Peng into submission that gave her a two-game buffer and the chance to put away the set.
The unforced errors that Peng began to produce gave the number one seed plenty of comfort to keep her game strong. After landing a winner to set up two set points, Svitolina finished a short rally with a line drive that just caught the baseline by a hair ending the set in 31 minutes. Svitolina had 10 winners and minimized her unforced errors which was the key to Peng being in an early hole with 15. During the break, Peng’s coach Bertrand Perret came for a 1 on 1 giving her some key points to counteract Svitolina.
In the hopes of counteracting in the second set, the Chinese star broke the number one seed, but faltered on service. She lost control giving Svitolina on deuce which she ultimately handled to level up. The Ukrainian star served well in the third putting pressure on Peng to match her opponent’s skills. The 31-year-old fell in the fourth unable to counteract the defense of the number one seed who had every read going right on the rallies.
She picked up her fourth straight setting up an ace for game point before a high ball return from Peng landed wide of the side line. Svitolina was in solid control of her path to a title hoping that she could gain the final break that could put her on the homestretch to victory. Peng got a break on serve as unforced errors from Svitolina allowed her a key hold to stay alive in the set chasing the ball down choosing a good option to deliver a line drive winner.
Svitolina made her serve in the seventh game count putting together great responses to sit a game down of the title. Getting things done against Peng on the break would be up to her on returns and whether they were good enough to shut the match down. Svitolina reached 30-0 before Peng got on the board herself. She couldn’t control a line drive from the Ukrainian who reached championship point. She had the best chance to get it done on a pop fly but lightly hit it to land in the set. She lost a second point on another mistake indicating some jitters. Reeling it back in, the 22-year-old caught a winner on deuce before a final winner gave her the championship after one hour and eight minutes.
“It feels amazing,” Svitolina said during her on court interview after the match. “I couldn’t dream of being in the final because after the semifinals it felt really tough so I’m really happy the way I played today.” In it's second year, both Venus Williams and Elina Svitolina are the only ones to have won the tournament and be seeded as the number one player.
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