Elina Svitolina held her own at the Prudential Hong Kong Tennis Open Tuesday. The top seed narrowly avoided going three sets with Zarina Diyas to dominate in the tiebreaker winning 6-4, 7-6(2) on centre court at the Victoria Park Tennis Stadium.
The two hadn’t met in six years since their time in the ITF where Svitolina won their meeting in Beijing. With their second faceoff once again in China, the world number four had every opportunity to impress early. The defeat she took against Caroline Garcia in the Chinese capital drowned her chances of being the world number one and opening the week down a position in the WTA rankings. While none of it mattered to her more than her game, the top Ukrainian planned to put in work for a chance at a sixth title this season.
She was outplayed early on by the Kazak that despite being taped up on her upper leg, took Svitolina for the first three games of the set. it wasn’t until a hold from the Ukrainian in the fourth got her in the game adding a break to sit a game down after five. After a short stint with the trainer during the break, Svitolina played intelligent tennis to level back with Diyas, finding her winning ways.
She surged to take the lead which set up a chance to take the set with a big statement. Diyas battled on serve in the ninth but saw the number one seed draw to deuce. Diyas stayed in the fight through a few breaks that helped her secure the victory on serve ending Svitolina’s winning streak. Before the Ukrainian could serve out the set, rain fell upon centre court that delayed the match for a few minutes.
When play resumed, Svitolina played tough, defended her side and locked down the set point that completed the comeback in 49 minutes. Her offense against Diyas fared well through the 20 games played but struggles on the second serve had time to be improved going forward.
The same was said for Diyas’ game holding serve to start the second set enabling the two to keep their own pace against one another. They went four games even until Svitolina held in the fifth and successfully consolidated a break thereafter. The two-game buffer didn’t hold long for the number one seed as Diyas denied her opponent a double moving within reach to level the score once more.
The Ukrainian held her own in the eighth adding pressure for Diyas to hold off the end of the match. Despite having five double faults in the set, the Kazak managed to etch out her first service to love adding nerves to Svitolina who got a second try at getting into the round of 16. A double fault occurred at the wrong moment for the world number four but a rally for the fourth point got her back to level pegging. Diyas delivered a well-placed forehand on the return that helped her up the ante and win the game that sent the two deeper into the set.
Svitolina got the break in the 11th that was due to an ill-timed double fault from Diyas. Though she showed the chance to climb back with the recovery of a point, the number one seed achieved victory gaining a second chance at ending the match. Svitolina reached double match point with some help from Diyas on the unforced errors. A third double fault wrecked the Ukrainian on match point that brought the Kazak back to the competition with a critical tiebreaker. Svitolina knew that she didn’t want a third set to be played on court making a statement with four consecutive points. Though she put in work to get there, it was not a trembling thought in Diyas’ head. She got two points to her name before the changeover then lost control with a hard hit on the forehand.
Svitolina gained two points from her opponent’s errors hoping to make it a third-time charm. The short rally ended with another smash by Diyas into the net finishing the match in 1 hour and 44 minutes.
The relief to get out of a tough first round allowed Svitolina to catch her breath in a match that saw her struggle to maintain stability. With the jitters out of the way, the 23-year-old would prepare for her next match against Nicole Gibbs on Thursday.
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