Elina Svitolina made it a good finish to her early start at the US Open Thursday. With getting herself back on schedule, the fourth seed took care of her second round match to defeat Evgeniya Rodina in straight sets 6-4, 6-4 on Arthur Ashe Stadium at the Billy Jean King National Tennis Center.
Svitolina holds a two match winning streak against the Russian that included one this season leading to her first title win of 2017. The 22 year old hoped to reach the third round once more as her quadrant of the ladies draw got smaller with less high ranked competitors. The Ukrainian’s late victory holding off against Katerina Siniakova allowed her a chance to regroup and put her best against Rodina. The 28 year old handled Eugenie Bouchard swiftly indicating that her style of play had increased over the past several months giving her a chance to take Svitolina out.
She held in her opening game but as the Ukrainian secured her first game of service, the world number four opened the gap on Rodina taking a 3-1 lead in the process. Rodina got another service win under her belt but remained a game down of Svitolina who delivered another outstanding grouping of points in the fifth. She sent three that Rodina couldn’t return well on the forehand and blew another on the backhand. The Russian avoided a shutout in the game but in the end, the game went to Svitolina.
The next three decisions were split with the Ukrainian taking the heavier portion of victories. It was at the point she hunted down a break against Rodina. A bad beat nearly gave Svitolina the win but Rodina’s quick actions allowed her to force deuce. It only went to breaks as the Russian held ground in the ninth to be a game down of Svitolina who took her first try on serve to get it done.
Her strengths targeted the slow response and errors on the forehand of Svitolina that gave her set point on a rally that was short finishing with a return wide of the sideline to bring an end to 42 minutes. Despite the 52 percent on the first serve, she won more than three quarters of them and had a second serve that was well off to continuing forward into the second set. Before play continued, Svitolina had a meeting with the trainer who came out to tape of a blister she got on her right toe.
She got back to work facing the serve of Rodina’s which led the way to start the second. The 28 year old managed to keep the pace through four games but was broken in the fifth by the fourth seed who hunted down the first break. She kept on the path battling Rodina on serve in the sixth that extended to deuce. After three attempts to gain the key point, Svitolina brought more focus to her ball placement and gained a 4-2 lead.
Her dominance helped produce a three game winning streak that came from a double break of Rodina putting high pressure on the Russian. She served for the match but saw Rodina climb back to force her way to getting a break. It only took one attempt but in the end earned her first break of the set to stay alive. It gave Rodina a boost to make good on her serve which delivered with a game ending lob over the net.
She was still in trouble with Svitolina back on serve to close out the match where she reached triple match point quickly. It ended with a short rally concluding with a forced error by Rodina ending 1 hour and 23 minutes.
With a swift win, Svitolina will await her third round match to come against Shelby Rogers or former double partner Daria Gavrilova on Saturday.
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