Elina Svitolina enjoyed herself on court that turned into a tenth career title at the Brisbane International Saturday night. The 23-year-old Ukrainian dominated Aliaksandra Sasnovich
in straight sets 6-2, 6-1 winning her first title of 2018 at Pat Rafter Arena. It clinched her a spot as world number four next week with a very good statement to begin the season.
This was a big moment for the Belorussian as she went for glory in just her second career WTA final match. The 23-year-old had a chance back in 2015 where she went to the final at Seoul only to lose to Irina Camelia Begu there. The challenge was even stronger in the year’s first final of the season facing the world number six who was on the verge of picking up where she left off in Toronto. The Ukrainian had her eyes set on big things in 2018 but clearly Sasnovich was a dark horse having defeated Latvian star Anastasija Sevastova in straight sets capturing her seventh consecutive match win. She had the chance to pull off another upset if conditions went her way on court.
Svitolina didn’t let her get into position as she served up a quick win to start things off in the opening set. The nerves got to the Belorussian as she double faulted during her serve that led things to deuce. Svitolina countered quickly to give herself the break and consolidated with a third consecutive game win. Sasnovich’s backhand was letting her down causing the shot to slice away and make things worse for her. She reeled in the game to create a fight in the fourth to hold and get on the board.
The Ukrainian returned to take over, completing another service hold against the 23-year-old. Pressuring her on the returns was proving to be challenging as Sasnovich was gaining momentum from her own game to build up strength. It resulted in a second win but the pace of Svitolina lived on as she took the seventh to go for the set in spades. She kept ahead of the Belorussian to complete the victory that took her in 34 minutes to get. The Ukrainian served at 64 percent and landed 86 percent on the first serve.
The second was in her control taking the first two games swiftly. While the third came challenging to the world number six, she battled her opponent across court and capped it with another to beat her down. It was quickly 4-0 as Svitolina was playing way too well for Sasnovich to counter. In her fifth win of the set, Svitolina landed her fifth ace of the set and eighth overall to carry her to a 5-0 run putting the Belorussian into submission. She served in the sixth with unforced errors and double faults rattling her greatly that led to deuce with Svitolina.
In a last hurrah, Sasnovich laid down an ace to keep her alive playing through four breaks before coming to fruition to avoid the bagel. Svitolina served for the title landing an ace right away in the seventh. A winner followed soon after that consolidated a second ace in the game. She built up three championship points before an unforced error from the Belorussian brought an end in one hour and five minutes.
In what was a 15 game span, Svitolina was absolutely consistent winning 25 of 29 on the first serve and 18 of 29 overall on the returns. She had just two double faults in the match but nailed ten aces against Sasnovich who picked up her tenth career WTA championship and her first premier title. It put the Ukrainian in a good spot to become world number one with the Australian Open just a week away which Svitolina would take off to prepare for.
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