Elina Svitolina had more control to get another win at the BNP TEB Istanbul Cup Thursday night. The number one seed dominated Alexandra Cadantu with 30 winners from start to finish that led to her 6-3, 6-3 win at Garanti Koza Arena.
The two played each other twice four years ago when they were just starting out in professional tennis. Svitolina got the win over her in the semis before capturing what would be her first career WTA title. Cadantu holds a win over the Ukrainian as well and would try to make her remember that in the second round in Turkey. The Romanian had a thriller against Nao Hibino winning in a three setter that saw her run away to victory. With Svitolina as the number one it clearly has her a target but hopes that she won’t deal with another tough opponent and minimize the time on court.
She dealt with the fight from Cadantu early but read her opponents moves on court to counteract them. It was in the third that she blasted out a break before consolidating it with a 3-1 lead in the set. The 26 year old caught on fast and began moving on Svitolina’s rally to redirect the returns. She ended the short streak of the Ukrainian for a break with the chance to even the score. Cadantu brought heat in the sixth putting together a series of ground strokes that got the best of Svitolina to erase her margin halfway.
Svitolina knew that she could let herself get out of hand and rallied back to take care of business. The number one seed held firm for a love service in the second before breaking the Romanian thereafter. The 22 year old completed the dominance with another service hold that ended with a drive landing just inside the baseline to give her the set lead after 41 minutes. During the break, Svitolina took a chat with coach Andrew Bettles who came out to listen to his athlete and give her some points to go along with the good that she already had performed on court. He also had input on her opponent and some ways she could counteract them in the second set.
Cadantu had the ball in hand to start the set but didn’t expect such adversity to take place in the opening game. For the next eight and a half minutes, the Romanian and Svitolina got into a lockdown on deuce that almost saw no end. Cadantu made a final move that gave her the win but couldn’t help her consolidate another. The world number 13 made that her mission to do such work and gained two straight against the 26 year old.
The score was tied through four after Cadantu made a strike on the break which gave her momentum to move things her way. She held serve in the fifth with the hopes that she could earn another break from Svitolina and dictate the remainder of the set. Before she could get that to occur, Cadantu got herself into a nice service hold that challenged Svitolina to do the same as the set inched closer to an ending. In response to the tie, Svitolina broke the Romanian in the seventh and followed it up with a very strong service hold staying well in control of her ball placement.
It had Cadantu on the ropes at 3-5 hoping to find ways to counter Svitolina. She couldn’t ask the Ukrainian scored with her consistency of winner that led her to three match points. A final winner on the night brought an end to the match with the number one safely through to the quarterfinals.
She’ll have little time to rest as she’ll face another Romanian in the form of Sorana Cirstea who has won her last two matches in straight sets.
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