Elina Svitolina got a very quick win that ended shockingly at the Italian Open. What was turning into a runaway for the Ukrainian ended in a retirement from the Spaniard on Campo Centrale.
Garbine Muguruza decided to call it quits after a 4-1 score in the first set to move her into the finals on Sunday. The defending champion of the French Open decided that how her body was feeling was not enough to continue on. For Svitolina, it sets her up against Simona Halep of Romanian who has yet to drop a set in the tournament.
While the French Open champion looked for her a chance at her first title of the season, the 22-year-old Ukrainian was hunting down her fourth and second WTA premier championship. Svitolina remains the most successful player in 2017 winning the most titles of any player. A fourth would surely bring her back into the top ten but playing Muguruza hasn’t been an easy task. The Spaniard took the lead in their head to head series with a three-set winner at Indian Wells that saw her rout the world number 11 to win. With the momentum, slightly in favor of the eighth seed, she’ll hope to even the score and make her way into another tournament final.
The opening game from Svitolina was blistering as the shots were coming off aggressively as Muguruza swung and missed on one while the others didn’t get in the court. She made her own mark on her opening serve getting her end under control but once the serve returned to Svitolina, she once again faced troubles. It was a push from the 22-year-old that gave her a strong 3-1 lead in the set with much under her control.
She experienced the first sign of challenges from Muguruza in the fifth who forced her way to deuce. She had three break chances to get it done but every point ended in a winner to the Ukrainian. Svitolina finished things off with a forehand shot on serve that gave her another step pushing the margin to three games. During the break, Muguruza spoke with the court supervisor and made her intentions clear to retire from the match that ended so suddenly with her shaking the hands of Svitolina after 22 minutes.
“First I want Garbine to have a fast recovery because Roland Garros is such a big tournament ahead and very tough and she’s defending champion and will be very tough for her so I hope she will recover very quickly,” Svitolina said after the match. “I’m still a little bit shocked, I was so into the game.” “I’m very happy that I’m in the final and I’ll just try to enjoy tomorrow and try to win.”
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