Elina Svitolina showed comfort and energy to get herself through to the finals of the BNP TEB Istanbul Cup. The world number 13 held off Jana Cepelova in the second set from forcing the game further and won 6-2, 6-3 at Garanti Koza Arena to advance to her first finals appearance in the tournament.
The number one seed last met Cepelova at Dubai in what was the beginning to her title run in the tournament. She handled the Slovakian for a third time on court allowing her less than four games in their last two meets. With another title in view for the Ukrainian her fierce offense had to be on point in order to take care of business quickly.
After a short start for the two, the Ukrainian made the push for leading the set with a break in the third. She put together some good points in the fourth that let her get Cepelova comfortable on the rallies before landing the redirects that gave her a 3-1 lead. She continued to Cepelova who had no answers for Svitolina who brought more speed to the ball increasing the pressure for her opponent. It was quickly 4-0 on a triple break point winner for the Ukrainian who had all the right answers.
Cepelova managed to end the shutout on her end in the fifth with a much-needed hold of serve that beat the number one seed on point. It was a short-lived moment for the Slovakian who suffered another blow in the sixth watching Svitolina run through the game with an offense that was hard to respond on.
Cepelova fought back on serve to save the game briefly on deuce until a winner handed her another win holding the set back from a finish. The ball returned to Svitolina who found herself down on the score losing focus but struck back with a key ace. She began to march back saving three break points to force deuce and set up set point where an 11-shot rally ended with a winner completing 34 minutes of play.
She was well in control of her destiny to play well with no signs of trouble to her end. She had three aces in the set while landing eight winners and minimizing the unforced errors. The success put holes in her opponent’s offense who also brought struggles with three double faults and 16 unforced errors that had to get better in the second.
The hold of serve in the second for Cepelova was important but her efforts to break Svitolina were still a heavy task. She got into a groove with a strong stance on serve in the third that was a clear challenge for the number one seed to push harder. A challenge arrived in the fifth where she saw Cepelova fight to deuce for the break. She put fear into Svitolina who somehow saved the break for herself taking a 3-2 lead.
The pace was once again back in Svitolina’s hands winning on serve to lower the confidence of her opponent. She put together a set of shots that beat Cepelova with winners to reach 5-2 and serve for a spot in the final. Cepelova wasn’t going to give up easily and broke ahead first in the eighth game. Svitolina got the nerves that busted her service with a double fault and errors that held the match from concluding. The Slovakian tried to do it again on serve and got a break with Svitolina blowing her second match point with a ball into the net.
Three was naturally a charm for the Ukrainian who got a match point scoring on a winner to finish a 13-shot rally with Cepelova to avoid a slip of the set. It took her 1 hour and 13 minutes which was a breather compared to her recent bouts at different times of the evening. In her victory over Cepelova, Svitolina finished with a 60 percent first serve landing 17 winners and kept the unforced errors low to be the dominant one on court. With the chance for third WTA this season, the 22-year-old would await the winner between Irina Camelia-Begu and Elise Mertens on Sunday
No comments:
Post a Comment