Elina Svitolina was running from behind and suddenly found herself winning on the day at the Brisbane International Thursday. The world number six battled against Johanna Konta only to see the Brit call it quits at 1-6, 7-6(6), 3-2 at Pat Rafter Arena on the ground of Queensland Tennis Centre.
This was both their first big challenge of the 2018 season. While the world number six breezed through her two matches, the Brit battled against Madison Keys and then went the distance against Ajla Tomljanovic to win. While she hasn’t won a match against Svitolina yet, the 26-year-old looked good enough to force Svitolina into a tight spot in route to a place in the semifinals.
Konta began the night with a break of Svitolina holding the Ukrainian to a point who had some trouble early. The world number six tried to get back on Konta’s serve but all the fight she pulled together fell apart after a few breaks on deuce. It was not going well for Svitolina who couldn’t attack well on Konta who was on a mission to take control while the chances were there. She gave the notion of a grip on the set as she had a 4-0 lead on the third seed.
She gained a victory on the serve that ending the shutout bring a lot of effort to get it. During the break, she had a chat with coach Andrew Bettles who kept her positive while giving her ideas on how to counter the Brit going forward. The strategy didn’t go well as Konta went after everything breaking Svitolina to capture the set in 35 minutes. She had three aces and won 12 of 17 on the first serve with 16 winners. Her return game on the second serve assisted well winning 10-12 and well on her way to threatening the third seed.
After taking a quick break on court, Svitolina came out only to watch the world number nine landing another ace in the opening game of the second set. Svitolina matched the 26-year-old in the second game but knew there was a lot of ground to recover from. She proved that gaining back some control and won points against Konta to climb back into contention. Svitolina leveled through six hoping to keep her serve in line with the Brit’s.
Both were on point with their serves taking each game at their own pace with things still tied in the set. The serve was the key in the match and for Konta, she continued showing such power landing the aces that helped her take a 5-4 lead threatening Svitolina’s departure from the tournament. The Ukrainian had mistakes and errors in the tenth but came through it to send the set forward. Konta set the mark first landing winners in the 11th to pressure Svitolina into elimination. The 23-year-old Ukrainian would not go quietly as she was determined to make a third set happen by playing a tiebreaker.
Konta was first to lead putting everything to win the opening point. It was becoming a battle much like the way the set went trading off points with the Brit out in front. It wasn’t till the fifth point that Svitolina turned the pace around until a mistake got Konta level. Her second serve helped get her back in the lead after nine but an ace from Svitolina evened the score. After another tie through 12 points, a change came for the Ukrainian who put down a good winner to set up set point. After the one hour and 14 minutes that it took, Svitolina captured the win with an unforced error from Konta sending the match to the brink.
“I had to be really focused on each point and the second set I told myself that I needed to fight till the last ball and wait for my chances,” said Svitolina. “I really served well near the end of that set so it was very happy that I could produce a good game.”
Before the opening of the final set, the British star went off court to deal with an injury that required her to take time during the set break. She came out battling and leveled through four but in the fifth, she suddenly decided to retire as her movements on court had changed making the decision to end her run that was full of exciting highlights.
“It’s the worst thing that can happen for the player when you get injured especially during the match,” Svitolina said during her on court interview. “Hopefully Jo will recover quickly because she played really well today.”
She’ll await the winner between Kaia Kanepi or second seeded Karolina Pliskova on Friday.
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