Elina Svitolina ended a late night with a spot in the semifinals of the BNP TEB Istanbul Open. Just finishing an hour before midnight Friday. The number one seed held on in straight sets to beat Sorana Cirstea 6-4, 6-4 at Garanti Koza Arena to advance into the semifinals in the singles draw.
The two met for the first time nearly a year ago where the Ukrainian had no trouble starting her French Open tournament with a straight sets win over Cirstea. So far in Istanbul, the number one seed hasn’t run into too much trouble and got the round of 16 defeating Cadantu Thursday. With the tournament at its midway point, the world number 13 has every chance of keeping her strong pace to move on if all factors play her way.
She took and early 2-0 lead in the opening set prior to the Romanian earning her win on serve. It remained that way going forward with the Ukrainian up a game after five. She remained that way with a solid first serve and strong returns during the rallies. It allowed her to stay on point when possessing the ball. Svitolina led 5-3 hoping to break Cirstea but the efforts were difficult as mistakes continued to give the Romanian leverage. After three breaks, she held serve in the ninth but knew that stopping the number one seed on serve for the set would be a heavy task.
She brought her best when she needed it most earning break point opportunities against Svitolina. It put the Ukrainian on notice recovering from the deficit to capture the set in 50 minutes.
The number one seed started with another push out front consolidating a break followed by a service hold. It all turned around with Cirstea winning in the third followed by a break that erased Svitolina’s lead with powerful hitting on her offense. The Ukrainian earned another break that gave her back control but knew that going further with the march to the match was her sole mission.
It was an uphill battle for her as Cirstea got back into a tie with her opponent through the net set of games that nearly had the Romanian in reach of forcing the set deep. Svitolina did her best to jump out in the critical ninth game where the ball was hers to dictate for the match. She put the pressure on her 27-year-old adversary to reach match point scoring it on a shot landing inside ending the 1 hour and 31 minutes.
Despite having five double faults and 30 unforced errors, the opportunity to keep play allowed her to focus on the next match that would pit her against Jana Cepelova on Saturday where delays wouldn’t hinder her performance on court with just a match between her and a possible third WTA title this season.
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