Elina Svitolina ended the amazing run of her opponent at the Miami Open Friday. Despite some stressful moments against Naomi Osaka, the fourth seed completed her day with a 6-4, 6-2 win on Stadium Court at Crandon Park Tennis Center. It was the 16th match win for Svitolina who advanced to the third round for a third time in her career in the second half of the sunshine double.
This was the fifth matchup between the two stars of the game and a big moment for the 22-year-old Japanese Phenom. After her attaining her first masters title at Indian Wells and beating Serena Williams for the first time, the world number 22 finds herself on the verge of pulling off the sunshine double with her momentum. She defeated Svitolina twice in 2016 with wins at the Australian Open and Tokyo. Despite losing to her in Dubai in straight sets this season, she’ll try with all the good components of her game to change up the series. Svitolina didn’t get beyond the second-round last year and hoped to best her round of 16 finish from 2014 by holding back the hard hitter.
Osaka began the match with a good form of offense that resulted in an ace, a couple of errors but the service hold she wanted. While Svitolina didn’t have the same results, she got through clean with a hold to love to level things early. The second serve started to show signs of struggle that resulted in the world number four getting the first break opening the door for her to dictate. Osaka denied her that opportunity reeling the score back to level pegging before consolidating the break with a hold.
The pressure was on Svitolina to remain strong and answer the 22-year-old in the sixth. Despite playing deuce, the fourth seed held it together landing an ace for the AD point before sealing the deal to stay deadlocked. Svitolina pulled off the break she wanted chasing down all the ball that Osaka laid out, putting her own touch on the returns. Both coaches came out during the changeover to speak with their players and keep them focused with the set closing in on the deciding factor.
Svitolina did it with her previous strategy working out another victory so sit 5-3 and put worries in the mind of the Japanese star. Osaka rallied at the right moment to save the set from ending gaining a 40-0 run before the fourth seed landed a great sneaky shot near the net. Osaka avoided more of those from occurring gaining the win sitting a game down. Svitolina got her opportunity to serve for the set but had a challenge on her hands from Osaka who played with all her efforts to stay alive.
They went to deuce where on the second break, Svitolina laid down a shot landing just on the line to bring an end to the set in 39 minutes. She maintained a near flawless offense in the set serving near 70 percent with two aces and six unforced errors. Osaka had double the number of her opponent with very low serve percentages and a troubling return game.
She tried to compose herself on serve to open the second set but a battle from the Ukrainian took them to deuce. After three breaks, it was the experience of the world number four that gave her the break followed by a service hold in the second. Osaka continued to find herself in trouble as the errors handed Svitolina another win putting her halfway to victory. It was Svitolina’s set to lose as she gained another footing into the set taking a 4-0 rout of Osaka. The 22-year-old tried the remedy the situation on her own terms but gaining the AD point from the fourth seed continued to prove difficult. Despite playing three breaks, she secured the win that swept away the possibility of a shutout.
There was still a lot more ground to recover from and Svitolina back on serve in the sixth. She notched her victory to take the 5-1 stance putting Osaka on the edge of defeat with the ball in hand. She avoided two match points by Svitolina forcing deuce in the process. Every point was key for the 22-year-old and got the after three AD point attempts to stay alive. The offense switched back to Svitolina who wanted to end a comeback at all costs. Osaka got a foothold in the eighth striking well on the return while the Ukrainian had some errors creep in to her game. It resulted in a full comeback from 0-40 where a third match point resulted in Osaka delivering a fly ball that fell long of the baseline completing 1 hour and 23 minutes.
“It was a good match,” Svitolina said to Andrew Krasny after the match. “Naomi coming here into the match with lots of confidence after winning Indian Wells it’s a massive deal. I was just trying to make it physical and tried to challenge her and just playing great tennis today.” Svitolina won 78 percent of her first serve shots while the second serve remained solid winning on 19 of 30. “I was serving really good,” she said about her offense. “I was just trying to play little bit with the wind because it’s a bit windy here but trying to play it smart on the ball was smart.”
She’ll take on the winner between Daria Gavrilova of Australia and Julia Goerges of Germany in the third round on Sunday.
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