Svitolina dominates Williams at Rogers Cup

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Elina Svitolina had everything going right for her at the Rogers Cup Thursday night. The world number five dominated against Venus Williams in straight sets to win 6-2, 6-1 on Centre Court at the Aviva Tennis Centre in Toronto. It was her first win against the American and the one to get her into the quarterfinals.

It was two years ago when the two stars last played one another with Williams allowing Svitolina just seven game wins in her straight sets victories. Much has changed since then with the Ukrainian being a powerhouse on any surface she has played on. While her struggles in the second round showed greatly, the rust was assuredly dusted off and got her into action to take on the American veteran. Williams had to fight as well in her last two matches going the distance in the first and threatened in each set against Katerina Siniakova. She would no doubt see the same adversity against the world number five who wanted to gain strength in the tournament.

She took the jump ahead on the score breaking Williams but controlling herself in the rallies proved difficult against the veteran star. Williams got aggressive on the returns that troubled Svitolina in turn. She got to deuce with the American that went a few breaks before an ace on the advantage secured the win and her serve. Her defense against Williams service caused errors to arise during the short rallies. She earned the double break with a sharp return that landed away from the American taking a third consecutive win.

The number of unforced errors were making things easy for Svitolina who coasted to another victory holding Williams to a pair of points. The Ukrainian was ruthless in the fifth as she aggressively sought a triple break on Williams getting to done with one to go for the bagel. It was up to the former number one to get out of trouble on the break or make it a difficult evening on court.

She had a good chance to lock down a lone victory but the efforts from Svitolina to secure the sweep were working. She forced deuce but double faulted at the wrong moment. It left the door open for Williams to dictate the game point and end the winning streak of her opponent. The 37 year old still had trouble on the forehand serving 35 percent with Svitolina eyeing an end to the set. Williams had other ideas as her fight started to come alive pulling out a second victory.

Svitolina had enough of the comeback and fired off three winners against Williams to set up set point. After one allowed, the Ukrainian closed the door after 32 minutes on Williams’ 14th unforced error. In the eight games played, the ninth seed finished with 38 percent success on the serve and four double faults that did plenty of damage on her end.

She did everything to remedy that in the second set taking the offense to Svitolina. It was just after that the 22 year old struck all the way back for the break securing another victory. She began to set the pace again holding serve while giving very little to help Williams. A fifth double fault came from the American who was in trouble quickly in the third. Despite having to play deuce, she put together a response that was enough to capture a win and gain momentum. She almost had a grip on the break in the fourth but on and off mistakes were enough to let Svitolina take the game and a 3-1 lead. The 22 year old was back on track capturing another double break in the match as she got to Williams shots in the rally, taking another step in the right direction. She had a 5-1 hold with Williams on the verge of defeat. They had an amazing rally for the second point but in the end, it was Svitolina who held her ground and watched as another long error from Williams brought an end to the 1 hour bout.

“I was just trying to focus on my game and play one point at a time because she was doing unforced errors and tried to be there in the right moment,” Svitolina said during her on court interview.

While she put up stunning numbers with five aces, a single double fault, 14 winners and less than a dozen errors it summed into a perfect day against a veteran who didn’t have her game together from the start. Williams struggled from start to finish putting together six doubles and 28 unforced errors that highly uncharacteristic of her. “I was just trying to move quick and just look for the ball and play deep and make her feel uncomfortable. It was the key to staying calm tonight and really be focused on each point and happy to win in straight sets.”

She’ll prepare for Friday’s important quarterfinal between the winner of Ashleigh Barty and Garbine Muguruza.