Elina Svitolina had a tough outing to start her grass court season at the AEGON Classic Monday. The efforts from Heather Watson were on the heavy side but the number two seed held her off in the late stages of the third to win 6-2, 5-7, 6-3 on Ann Jones Centre court at Edgbaston Priory Club in Birmingham
This was a fourth meeting for the two and the first since the Rio Olympics where Svitolina took down Watson in the second round of the singles draw. Since last summer, the Ukrainian has been at her best to the point where her four singles titles this season helped her reach the world number five ranking. Her history on grass hasn’t been the greatest as she went 1-2 last year getting eliminated in the first round in the tournament. Coming off her quarterfinal run at Roland Garros allowed the high seeded player to rest for a time before returning to action once again.
Watson held the best advantage of playing on her home turf while carrying four victories so far during the grass season. Despite the lopsided results between the two, the first round in Birmingham left either with an open chance of putting something together while the week of action begins.
Watson had troubles coming out of the gate putting too much power on her backhand. The errors helped Svitolina briskly get through her opening serve and earned the break to lead 2-0. It was eerily quiet going into the third but Watson’s effort to fight for the break helped the crowd get behind her. The 25-year-old got to deuce and successfully broke the number two seed to get on the board.
The Brit had a chance at leveling the set at two each with her momentum on the verge of overtaking but problems at the end let it slip away. She didn’t give up despite being down 3-1 but went down another as a fight on deuce through three breaks remained firmly with the world number five. During the break, Watson’s coach Colin Beecher came out to reassure her of the opportunities and what to fix to get back into the set.
She gained another win to her name but the dominance of Svitolina helped her keep the set in control and move up 5-2 to go for the opening lead in the match. It was an easy path to success as she pulled off three break/set points on Watson to win it on a forehand error from the Brit ending things in 42 minutes. Despite having a low outcome to her serves, the number two seed fared better than her counterpart and saw her second returns help out in a major way. Watson’s second serve had to improve if her chances to get the set going for her could occur.
She still had fight to start the second set but overcoming Svitolina remained a very difficult task. The Ukrainian took the opening game after two breaks on deuce followed by consolidating with a second straight victory. Watson once again got on the board to avoid a shutout but overtaking Svitolina was the order of the day if she wanted to keep playing. Watson kept within reach of Svitolina winning on the break in the fourth but gaining the lead was still a difficult task.
The 25 year old didn’t let off the gas as she continued to match Svitolina game by game to the point where a push from the world number five led her into position for close out the match. Watson had the ball in play in the tenth hoping to keep her game together once more and reach further opportunities. Her serve came up big for a third straight moment in the set that now put pressure on the number two seed to keep it together and find ways of maintaining the straight sets outcome.
Watson came out in the 11th and showed her power to be at its full potential. Her ground strokes and ball placement against Svitolina sent things to deuce where the Brit looked in complete comfort. She took her first step into the lead while the second seed had herself in a troubling situation for the first time.
Watson brought it in the 12th where she used the energy from her countrymen cheering her on and took the game in perfect stride to set up the deciding third set. She won 77 percent of points on the first serve that subsided the troubles from her second. It was enough to bring down Svitolina who knew she was in trouble having to play a third set. She took her first meeting with coach Andrew Bettles where she voiced her frustrations while hoping to get some advice.
The Ukrainian kept her offense together opening up the gap in the score with her powerful forehand that caught Watson off the point at times It led to another winning streak holding Watson to just one through five decisions. The frustration was on the Brit’s face as she slammed her racket to the ground during the break. It brought out Beecher to calm her down and give her pointers on how to counter attack the Ukrainian who was running on all cylinders. A much needed break in the sixth came at the right moment for Watson who followed the words of her coach to get through the game and use more on the forehand.
The hypothesis of Watson’s path did not come to pass as Svitolina held firmly in the seventh to sit a game down of closing the match. Instead of playing forward, the 25 year old had to bring much more of an effort to stay alive. She opened a 40-0 lead on Svitolina in the eighth holding two game points. She went on the defensive in the ninth saving three break points to force deuce on Svitolina’s serve for the match. It wasn’t enough to keep going as the number two seed held strong after the first break to win on an error to end the two hour and nine minute battle.
“I’m very happy that I could win this match,” Svitolina said. “Heather was playing very good in the second set and she’s a great grass court player, always tough to play against her so I’m very happy that I could finish with a win today.”
With her being the highest seed in the tournament, the 22-year-old would move on from a tough match to take on the winner between Italian Camila Giorgi and Natalia Vikhlyantseva of Russia on Wednesday.
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