Elina Svitolina let the nerves get to her on the world’s biggest stage. A second attempt to get into her first French Open semifinal went awfully sour against Simona Halep who overcame a dismal start to the second set to win 3-6, 7-6(6), 6-0 on Court Suzanne Lenglen at Roland Garros. The third seed not only pulled off a revenge for her loss in Rome but shattered Svitolina’s nine game match winning streak.
Much is at stake for the two struggling stars of tennis as they battled it out once again with much more at stake than a few weeks ago when they faced one another for the Italian Open title. Halep had a right foot injury going into it and while she hasn’t dropped a single set in the tournament. The 2014 finalist has her eyes set on gaining a footing to down the competition. The world number six had lost two sets so far but has been the best on clay this season. Going out with another win over Halep would not only set up her up for a bigger stage than she’s ever been on, but similar oppositions in her path.
She gave an impressive opening sweeping the first two games to become a serious threat for the Romanian. It was proven to be a challenge for Halep to gain a break as the 22-year-old kept a defense against her to hold serve through two breaks and lead after three straight. The wind returned for the two where Halep had to deal with it more and the sun bearing down on her. Svitolina forced the difficulty even higher as she handled the Romanian on deuce with her strong forehand dominating on the winners giving her a 4-0 run.
The run for Svitolina looked far too easy as she was too much for Halep to deal with at the current state. Every opportunity to break her on deuce only allowed Svitolina to dictate. Halep found herself on the edge of a bagel serving to stay alive in the sixth. She got into deuce once more but somehow had enough effort to bring her game together and beat Svitolina. The Ukrainian saw her game take a slip from where it was prior to Halep’s win seeing more errors than ever.
It led to giving Halep a stronger footing that gave her a two-game winning streak but still in danger of losing the set. It arrived in the ninth as the pressure deepened for the third seed who fell after 43 minutes giving Svitolina the hold. Halep nearly ended the set with a second serve that had yet come alive in the opening five games. By the time it did she won 44 percent shockingly doing better than Svitolina who only won 29 percent on the second serve.
The world number six didn’t let that bother her as she opened a two-game span before Halep got on the board. Despite the new scenario of Halep’s game, the Ukrainian was still in fine form taking another strong service hold followed by a break that gave her a 4-1 commanding lead. The forehand winners were becoming a force to be reckoned with for Halep. She somehow found a way to counter attack the 22-year old’s offense and force deuce yet again.
The problem came when trying to gain the break as it was the errors that cost her dearly putting the fifth seed in position for the match. Halep denied her the honor of another break as she took her first love service hold making it count while she had the chance. More came from the Romanian as she broke Svitolina in the eighth to win her second straight. Halep got into a hole in the ninth but battled back with the forehand strengthening through the game. She landed her first ace on deuce which led to a dicey rally that Svitolina won to keep things level. A 16 shot rally gave Halep her second try at a service hold which came on a ball landing long to sit a game down from evening up in the set. The pressure went to Svitolina serving for the match a second time with the wind picking up again. It was clearly frustrating her as she racked up unforced errors and gave Halep three break points. The uphill battle came to an end as she failed to stop the Romanian who made it five all.
The nerves were high for Svitolina who let Halep make a full recovery and enough to give her the confidence to push a third set into action. The fifth seed tried everything to dig in and return the adversity she saw from her opponent. It wasn’t enough as the third seed watched a final unforced error come from Svitolina; awarding her the lead for the first time in the match.
Just when it looked as if she would never let go of her first time in control, Svitolina had her chance to change the setting. Coming back from 0-40 down, the Ukrainian fought with everything to get the hold together and force Halep into a tiebreaker. Despite playing three dramatic breaks, she got the important win to give herself another chance at making the semifinals or suffer another set of games into the third.
Svitolina gave herself another sizable lead in the tiebreak but opened the door once more to give Halep some breathing room. It turned into a very close race but the Ukrainian reached match point for a fifth time. Halep killed off the opportunity tying things at six all with a great handling of the rally. In an amazing end to the final point and a fifth set point for the third seed, she won the game with a return hitting the net and dropping over to end the set in 57 minutes.
The tables turned to start the final set where Halep found her game come to full potential for the first time in the match. She opened the set with three consecutive victories while Svitolina’s self-esteem and confidence fell dramatically. The troubles only moved Halep further on to success things well under control from her end. It was becoming a slow-motion car accident as Halep had a 5-0 hold in just 17 minutes with her on the ball serving for the match. In a stunning show of force, the third seed quickly reached three match points to win the love service, the set and the match in two hours and six minutes.
It took just 20 minutes to earn the bagel and one of the most prolific comebacks from being down 5-1 in the second set and getting into the semifinals for a second time. The second serve of Halep came together far better than her opponent who took 42 attempts and managed only 17 points. The increase of Halep’s first serve percentage gave her the runaway in the third that saved her tournament run and go on. She’ll await Karolina Pliskova in Friday’s semifinal to determine one’s path to the final.
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