Garbine Muguruza met her match at the Rogers Cup Saturday afternoon. The world number four played a two-day ordeal with Elina Svitolina that spanned three sets with the Ukrainian showing more strength to win 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 on Centre Court at the Aviva Tennis Centre in Toronto. It was Svitolina’s first time in the semis in Canada with the second end of her game coming up big against the recent Wimbledon champion.
The two met twice this season evening their series at three games apiece. Svitolina earned a pass against Muguruza in the semifinals at Rome before going on to win the tournament. With it being her fourth title of the season, the 22-year-old Ukrainian has been on a storm ever since making it deep into grand slams and firing on all cylinders after defeating Venus Williams Thursday. The world number four had quite a day against Ashleigh Barty and would expect the same speed but high difficulty playing the world number five for a semifinal match.
Svitolina came out in a blaze taking Muguruza to love on her opening serve. She kept the heat on the fourth seed reaching the break but the Spaniard answered her at the right time. It took quite a long time for her to get it as she battled Svitolina through several breaks before Muguruza held. She consolidated with another win in the fourth putting the Ukrainian under pressure to act on serve. With effort on her offense, she managed to capture the fifth and stay within reach of Muguruza. Svitolina broke in the sixth with great response on the attacks that helped her reach level terms.
Problems overshadowed her efforts in the sixth as Muguruza gained easy point before putting away the game herself. She added another service hold to go up 5-3 sending the nerves of Svitolina into over drive. She added another double fault in the ninth but somehow held on despite two unforced errors in the game. A shot to win the set was in Muguruza’s hands and showed that she wanted it with good stances on the T in front of the net beating Svitolina on the volleys. She finished the Ukrainian with one final push for the set point that came to her on the winner ending 47 minutes.
Just during the break, the rain began to fall once again suspending the match which left Svitolina upset before her and Muguruza were escorted off the court. When they returned the next day, it was the Ukrainian who took off with good control of her game sizing up the competition to the point of a 3-1 hold. The Spaniard came back with her being on the same level as Svitolina conducting a solid break in the fifth.
She attempted to hold Svitolina to love but an unforced error opened the door for the world number five to attack the world number four. On the first break during a long rally, it came to an end on a ball landing long from the return of Muguruza making it 4-2. It was a going to be a tough fight for the Spaniard who managed to keep within a game of the 22-year-old but still had a hill to climb going forward. With the serve in hand and having had a talk with coach Sam Sumyk, the 23-year-old played strategically adding top spin to the ball making it difficult for Svitolina to be accurate.
It was a four all tie after Muguruza serve to love putting Svitolina in a situation of controlling her game in the late stages of the set being a set down. She picked up the fifth game despite being tough with her forehand the focus of Muguruza’s attacks. With a talk with Andrew Bettles during the break, the fifth seed put together a stance of two set points where an error gave her the key point ending 40 minutes. Muguruza had 27 errors against Svitolina who despite having a rough first serve held the second serve together in her quest to make the deciding set count.
Svitolina opened the scoring but the same came from her opponent who had a lot of power on serve in the second keeping the score level. By the third, Muguruza broke the Ukrainian with the forehand firing well on the return. It was the last win she would see for a time as Svitolina took the next three giving the clear indication of her rush to finish the match. Muguruza managed to get one final victory but as the ball got back to the fourth seed, she got the victory with the a solid winner to complete the two hour and eight-minute battle.
“it was very tough to serve with the wind and the conditions on court over the past two days and both of us were returning with accuracy and going for the shots so I was trying to playing my game and hold,” Svitolina said. She’ll have very little time to rest up as she takes on Simona Halep later on for yet another match this season.
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