Elina Svitolina had a very good day on court to finish quickly at the Brisbane International Wednesday. The third seed handled the opposition against Ana Konjuh to win in straight sets 6-3, 6-1 at Pat Rafter Arena at the Queensland Tennis Centre.
Both haven’t faced off in two years with the world number six getting the win in their most recent meeting. The Ukrainian’s performance against Carla Suarez-Navarro Monday was a statement of her quest to be as good as she was last season and better into this one. The Croatian felt the same way about her outlook beating Kiki Bertens in her opening round match. With some tension in their matches the two stars would put heavy moments on one another to get into the quarterfinals.
She opened the gap after both took their opening serves rocking Konjuh with heavy hits and speed that she could not deal with. After five games, the Croatian found herself in a deep hole but came through after a talk with her coach to hold the 23-year-old briefly. The world number six was still effective in her own game dominating with an even flow of both her serves.
She reached 5-2 but Konjuh’s never say die attitude kept her alive to play on. She threatened in the ninth fighting Svitolina on deuce getting very good chances to smash the ball away from the Ukrainian. Svitolina handled the adversity and focused her way to getting the AD point that ended the set in 37 minutes. The Ukrainian finished the set with an even keel on both sides of her serve and had 10 winners so far.
She broke Konjuh in the first but was surprised as some lucky breaks for the Croatian resulted in her breaking the world number six. It was the last win that Svitolina allowed for a time as she put together three dominant game winners to lead 4-1 and grip her hands tighter on the match. The sixth was just another swift victory allowing two points to Konjuh who was out of ideas on how to strike back. She witnessed as the 30-year-old limped in her last game giving Svitolina three break points to close the match in one hour and four minutes.
“it was a good match,” Svitolina said during her on court interview. “I was expecting a tough match from Ana today and I was happy the way I handled the tough shots she was hitting and very happy the way I played today.” She’ll have her first biggest challenge playing native Aussie Johanna Konta Thursday in the round of eight.
“it’ll be a tough match,” Svitolina said about playing Konta before. “She’s coming back after injury so it’s nice to see her and I’m sure it’ll be a tough battle.”
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