Elina Svitolina earned another strong victory at the French Open Tuesday. The sixth seed handled the toughness of opening rounds at Roland Garros, seeing her way to defeating
Yaroslava Shvedova 6-4, 6-3 on Suzanne Lenglen Court. It was Svitolina’s 33 win of the season and one that she’ll use to move deep in the tournament.
The two met last year in a Grand Slam where the Kazak took care of business against Svitolina winning her way deeper at Wimbledon. Things are much different this year as the recently crowned Italian Open champ showed her dominance once again on the clay courts. The 22-year-old has been the most dominant this the season started and has her eyes set on going father than ever in her seventh appearance. The Ukrainian has an injury to her thigh to worry about but her game was ready to even the score against Shvedova.
It was already proving to be a challenge as the Kazak dug in to play against Svitolina through each game. While the two opened the set with service holds, it was Shvedova taking a precedent with the lead in the third after successfully breaking the world number six. She earned her 3-1 lead over the Ukrainian with a good service hold in the fourth that saw unforced errors rise on Svitolina’s end. She immediately remedied the situation with a 40-0 push, giving away a point before sitting a game down. She hunted down the break in the sixth reaching two break points with a strong return game. She got it on an error from her opponent that made things level for her to begin dictating.
She took the lead back in the seventh with the forced errors moving into double digits for Shvedova making it easy for Svitolina on serve. The brief ease went away quickly as the 29-year-old continued to hold her end keeping the heat on Svitolina to quiet her defense and return game. She still stayed out front with another service hold that put Shvedova on notice in the tenth. The sixth seed fought for the chance to end the set getting two set points where an angled smash gave her the set lead after 33 minutes.
Despite finding herself in a hole, Shvedova was playing an even game with Svitolina after ten games making it a challenging day for the 22-year-old. The two played on serve through the first three games where Svitolina had her opportunities for breaking Shvedova open to her. Those chances didn’t come as lightly as she hoped experiencing a tough defense from the Kazak that returned shots the Ukrainian couldn’t get to in time. It was enough to build up confidence in Shvedova to turn the tables in the set if that was her intent.
A fight for the lead occurred in the fifth with Svitolina in trouble as Shvedova forced deuce. She quickly got out of trouble on the break to keep her nose out front with three games standing in front of her and a second-round spot. Shvedova wasn’t going to let Svitolina get away and proved so with another hold in the sixth that kept her level with the Ukrainian. Svitolina got into another deuce draw with Shvedova but once again controlled her destiny to win it.
The responses she had in the rallies allowed her to be the one on ball placement to lead. An important break in the eighth gave her a shot at serving for the match. She was not out of the woods as Shvedova forced Svitolina into another deuce draw. The two went to three breaks where each time Svitolina landed an ace she earned match point. It would take two tries before capturing the win over Shvedova that took 1 hour and 16 minutes to finish. “It was a very tough match,” Svitolina said during her on court interview. “First round is always very tough and we were both quite nervous so I was very happy the way I handled the pressure.” The quick ending allows her to settle in and await the winner between Mona Barthel and Tsvetana Pironkova in the second round. “I’m looking forward to my next match and play them match by match and see how it goes.”
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