Elina Svitolina played a match that required her to fight through tough adversity. Despite the tight race to the finish line by Lucie Hradecka, the number one seed managed a straight sets win 6-4, 7-5 at the Taiwan Open Thursday.
This was a first time meeting between the two Europeans who are regulars on the WTA tour. For the number one seed, she carried into the second round a heavy advantage since Tuesdays straight sets win over Rodina. The 31-year-old Czech struggled in her opening round playing the opening set to its distance before falling in the second set. The effort she put in the third leaves her vulnerable against Svitolina but more than capable of pressuring the world number 13.
She fought tooth and nail to get on the board following the Ukrainian but dealt with serious adversity on deuce. Challenges became useful on both sides trying to gain the important point where it could go either way. After a few challenges and breaks of serve, the Czech star managed to hold on to remain even on serve. The two kept pace after four until Hradecka made a push for the opening break. She forced Svitolina to deuce fighting for some leverage but lost her shot after the third break.
The hold of serve continued through six with Hradecka showing her willingness to fight hard against the number one seed. Svitolina was ready to bring an end to the set and compiled her hold in the seventh with a key break in the eighth. It set her up with the ball to serve for the set but the Czech had other ideas. She rallied to a double break chance hoping to save the set and force a tiebreaker. She got it done on the rally blasting a drive back in the same spot where Svitolina moved away from.
The world number 13 had to play aggressively in the tenth or be forced into a situation she wanted nothing of. She was down 0-30 struggling with the ground strokes of Hradecka that led to her reaching perfection on service. She suddenly gave up point after point letting Svitolina back in the game. The tenth went to deuce where the unforced errors on Hradecka’s forehand completely killed her chance for a push of the set. She watched another long ball bring a lead for Svitolina that took 47 minutes to complete.
During the break, Hradecka took a meeting with coach Jiri Fencl giving her advice on how to come back in the match, while Svitolina gained words of encouragement from new coach Andrew Bettles.
While Svitolina remained a strong force on her end of the court, Hradecka was also on the right side of the ball to start the second. She kept up with the service of the number one seed making things difficult thereafter. It was proven in the fifth where the game became a fight to either turn the game around or to keep it on pace. Svitolina won back the advantage twice in hopes that more of them wouldn’t be necessary.
After three breaks elapsed, Svitolina put the game away in her favor but she couldn’t break away from her Czech opponent. The pair went to eight games with either a tiebreaker on the horizon or a straight sets win for the 22-year-old. The number one seed reached a 5-4 lead hoping to get the important break and avoid further fights for control. Things went smooth at the start of the game but the fight from Hradecka was nowhere near gone. She climbed back to deuce and gave it everything she had at some critical points. Four times she killed off Svitolina’s match points before she gained her chance at the break. It took her a second try but the work in the tenth game paid off sending both players onward.
With the importance of the 11th in Svitolina’s hands, the Ukrainian quickly captured the game setting the bar high for Hradecka to counter. Defense was the order of the match for the 22-year-old who reached match point for a fifth time. A line drive that ended the rally stayed inside just enough to give Svitolina the deserved win and a place in the quarterfinals. Despite taking 1 hour and 44 minutes to get the win, the number one seed was the stronger of the two playing well in tight situations with her second returns carrying the weight against the Czech.
Svitolina would have to put her issues in her game aside and start from scratch in the quarterfinals where she will face Ons Jabeur of Tunisia on Friday afternoon.
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