Svitolina pushes herself to win first round at US Open

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Elina Svitolina made 24 hours a difference in more ways than one at the US Open Wednesday. The fourth seed went from crashing in the second set to playing sluggishly in the third. By the tail end of the match, the Ukrainian had her game on lock to defeat Katerina Siniakova 6-0, 6-7, 6-3 on Louis Armstrong Stadium at the Billy Jean King National Tennis Center.

The world number four began her quest at the US Open in her sixth appearance hoping to make the final grand slam of the season as good as her runs on other hard courts this season. The five-time tournament winner stands as a competitor to become world number one but it would begin against the Czech whom she has never met before. Siniakova recently won a title in Bastad but hasn’t done well carrying a three match losing streak. With a draw against the highly talented Ukrainian, she would have a lot of challenges in front of her to begin the first round.

Siniakova didn’t have the start that she wanted as Svitolina answered on the returns to capture the break. Her serve wasn’t at its best to start but her fight to get to the ball helped her save break points to force deuce. After a short break, Svitolina held on to her serve and went into the third showing improvement on the returns.

She got into a comfortable spot to cruise the next two rounds that gave her a 5-0 run with service for the set lead in her hands. She held off Sinakova with two points in the final game that locked down the bagel for the Ukrainian ending 24 minutes. The second serve dominated for Svitolina whose returns and minimal unforced errors beat down Siniakova overall.

She won her seventh in a row against the Czech but it wouldn’t be a complete rout for the fourth seeded Ukrainian. She watched Siniakova put together a much-needed service hold to avoid the double. Svitolina answered back with the control she had plenty of and took the next two games to begin her march to victory. Her opponent was down but not out as she looked for another service hold and got it done in the fifth game.

She remained a game down on Svitolina but as the set got closer to a conclusion, it was the fourth seed who inched closer to ending the match for herself. She held serve in the eighth that pressured Siniakova to get one more hold and threaten to go deeper. Before they played the ninth, small amounts of rain fell on the court making Svitolina desperate to finish quickly. She came back from 0-30 on the Czech but couldn’t get the break but her serve was in play by the tenth.

Svitolina had to battle hard against Siniakova who was putting everything to playing on. She gained break point chances against the fourth seed but found it difficult to secure the advantage. She got it done on the third break setting up a five all tie and more life for her to turn the tables in the set. She gained leverage in the 11^th but the experience from Svitolina allowed her to limit the pressure and win her way to play a tiebreaker.

After three points, play was paused to clean off the lines with water and then held from continuing play. Play was suspended minutes later leading to a rain delay that lasted the entire day; forcing play to resume Wednesday. The balls from Tuesday were once again played with as Siniakova served down 1-2 in the tiebreak. The Czech leveled up and took the lead with an unforced error from Svitolina.

The Ukrainian fell down a third straight point with another unforced error that had the game slipping away. She added a double fault which put her down 2-5 giving Siniakova so much momentum. It was set point for the Czech who won on a very unusual slice return from the fourth seed that gave her a chance to bring up a deciding third set. Svitolina saw herself saving points but she was still down a point to keep the second alive. They got into a long rally with one another but an error on the forehand saw the ball go into the net that clinched a third set into play.

Siniakova clearly made her point with the new day increasing her first serve to 70 percent with the increase of winners after 75 minutes. Her actions downgraded Svitolina’s game dramatically as she had 19 errors in the second than the four she had in the first.

The Czech continued with the pace that she started with and dominated with responses in the rallies. Her engagement against Svitolina showed after a strong break by Siniakova who had a far better game than her opponent. A much-needed hold in the third came to the fourth seed who showed very little confidence but the serve showed improvement enough for her to build on. The Czech began the fourth game giving Svitolina a lot of confidence with the errors on her part. She battled them to force deuce but the management of emotions by the Ukrainian made it easier to handle playing. After two breaks, she finished off the game to even the score with a well set up spike for the win.

Svitolina got another hold in the fifth that put her in front after completing a frustrating time and a difficult adversary. She put in a lot of work in the next game working against Siniakova’s serve that put them onto deuce. After a couple of chances on the advantaged, Svitolina got the win as her level of playing rose to get a grip on the set. Her serve in the seventh allowed her to trouble Siniakova with a perfect hold to love reaching a 5-2 stance.

Siniakova made her serve count, avoiding an end to the match with her first serve doing work. Svitolina didn’t let her gain any more ground as she delivered another solid service game in the ninth that ended on a long ball return from the Czech ending 2 hours and 33 minutes.

“I was playing great and she’s a great player,” Svitolina said to Andrew Krasny after the match. “She knows how to come back into the game and I was kind expecting this from her and it was a little unlikely to restart yesterday because I was playing good and today was a mess in my head. It was very tough to keep the focus and I’m very happy to win the third set and play very solid tennis.”

“I was just trying to fight for every ball because there is no other way to win the match if you’re not mentally strong and just fighting till the end and waiting for the opportunity and that’s what I did and it worked.” She won’t have time to celebrate getting out of the first round as she’ll have a second-round march Thursday against the winner between Evgeniya Rodina and Eugenie Bouchard