Elina Svitolina showed signs of struggle at the start of the match but earned an early pass into the quarterfinals of the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix Thursday. Marketa Vondrousova got overheated on court in the third set before retiring in a 2-6,6-1,3-2 match on Centre Court at Porsche Arena.
The two met back in February where the Ukrainian took down the Czech in straight sets in what was her first match of the tournament. With the situation similar, the world number four hoped to get a good footing into the clay court season in what was her first appearance in the tournament. Svitolina hasn’t played since March 28th taking plenty of time to rest before going heavily into the next few tournaments prior to Roland Garros. Vondrousova stands on a four-match winning streak looking for another chance at getting her first career top ten upset.
She came out firing making things difficult for Svitolina landing five winners through two games including her own service hold. It took time for the world number four to capture her own hold playing through a few breaks. They carried on with Vondrousova taking point on winning her service games before breaking Svitolina in the sixth. The Czech gained further ground on the third seed pulling together another service hold with a clear threat of taking the set.
Andrew Bettles came out during the break to help try and get Svitolina back on track but it was not meant to be as Vondrousova closed things out with two set points. It was a 27-minute run for the Czech who had 11 winners despite committing three double faults. Svitolina clearly had not found her gear putting very little offense in the set with the need for more in the second set.
It was exactly what came to be as she battled hard against Vondrousova’s serve going to deuce where it took three break attempts to get it done. She began voicing her aggression in her strokes that earned her a second win holding on serve. Double faults were becoming a major problem for the Czech teen as she dropped another game giving Svitolina some much needed breathing room.
A problem in the fourth for Svitolina ended her rush to improvement slipping up on serve to get Vondrousova into the set. The same could be said for the 18-year-old as she had some weird moments during points that gave the Ukrainian an easy break. It was the last one she would get in the set as Svitolina was on a mission holding for a 5-1 lead. With a final attack against Vondrousova’s serve, she slammed the ball well achieve two set points to send them into a third set.
Vondrousova took the early break that frustrated Svitolina but made up for it breaking the 18-year-old with a fine well-rounded defense. They remained deadlocked through four with Svitolina leading the way for them each time. After the fifth game, while Bettles talked with Svitolina, the 18-year-old called the physical trainer and decided to call it quits bringing an end to 1 hour and 29 minutes.
“It’s always tough to play an opponent who is a little bit injured and the clay court doesn’t help really with this kind of injury that she was carrying so it’s always tough so hopefully she can recover quickly and be ready for the next tournament,” Svitolina said about her opponent after the match. “She was playing great tennis in the first. She played a couple of matches already and a bit more used to it. I was just trying to find my game and maybe going a little too much so hopefully I can go on court and be ready for the next match.”
She’ll take on Caroline Garcia in Friday’s quarterfinal which would no doubt be a big challenge as the world number six continues to be on a hot streak.
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