Elina Svitolina made three a charm at the BNP TEB Istanbul Cup Sunday evening. The number one seed completed the victory to capture her third WTA title of the season. Despite facing tremendous adversity from Elise Mertens the world number 13 won in straight sets 6-2, 6-4 Garanti Koza Arena. It was the seventh career title for the Ukrainian and the second to come on the clay surface.
This was the first meeting between the two Europeans and a critical one to determine who would walk away with the title. While Svitolina pursues her third title of the season, she’d do everything to avoid handing the Belgian a second career title. Mertens captured her first back in Hobart in a very long journey that took down Monica Niculescu in straight sets. She took down Irina Camelia Begu in the semis with a rough straight sets victory allowing the Romanian just two games. The key would be to limit the problems on her end while increasing the level of difficulty for the world number 13.
Getting that to happen was harder than she thought as the Ukrainian fired away on serve to beating the Belgian down with a good impression. The number one seed consolidated with a break and never looked back taking control of the occurrences on court to open her margin of victory. Svitolina turned it into a runaway very fast smashing the returns in the fourth to open the break points to her name. Mertens found ways of stopping her but couldn’t keep the pace on the rally.
The struggles for the Belgian allowed Svitolina plenty of room to fire shots on court and sweep up her third time on serve. It put all the pressure on Mertens to do something to save the set or suffer a rough outing going forward. She had two good responses including one near the net that leveled her on the score for the first time.
The speed of the ball was becoming a hard factor for the Belgian but she somehow forced deuce and found a way to defeat the number one seed with aces coming into play. She used the newfound confidence to break Svitolina in the seventh showing her best adversity to staying in the set. Svitolina denied Mertens a second chance at making it happen while on serve and held the Belgian off to complete the victory in 31 minutes.
Starting the second was a breeze for Svitolina who opened the margin high to dictate early. It wasn’t until the fourth that Mertens had a way to answer the Ukrainian and get dug in. She added another on the break but still found catching up very difficult. Svitolina led 4-2 but was having a rough outing in the seventh committing a double fault and unforced errors. It was enough to award Mertens a third win and threaten to level the set.
She battled hard on the serve delivering her best in the eighth to lock herself in a tie with Svitolina. The critical point for the Ukrainian came on serve in the ninth where gaining back control was imperative. Adding aggression to her control of the ground strokes gave her room to secure two game points and win on a ball landing wide from Mertens. The nerves ran heavy in the Belgian who served to stay in the match while Svitolina played her heart out for the title. She got the opening point with an attack that pushed her opponent to one end before the rally became too much.
The 21-year-old regrouped and took point with a lucky occurrence that Svitolina couldn’t overcome. A pair of unforced errors turned the game in favor of the number one seed who had match point but couldn’t get it done. Svitolina brought everything into the rally but couldn’t break Mertens who like her wanted to stay alive for as long as she could. A third long ball helped Svitolina gain back a second championship point that came on an angled winner to end the match in 1 hour and 15 minutes.
The success that Svitolina continues to carry this season brought her back to the ranking of tenth in the world sitting five points from ninth. She earned 43 thousand dollars for her tournament win and time to relax before her next chance at bringing home another title.
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