Carla
Suarez Navarro had the game of her tournament at the Mutua Madrid Open Tuesday night. Battling
back minor injuries a tough opponent and an intense environment the 29 year old
unseeded Spaniard took down Elina
Svitolina in three sets 2-6, 7-6(3), 6-4 on
Arantxa Sanchez Court on the grounds of La Caja Magica. The maintaining of her
first serve got her across the finish line to advance to the third round.
It hasn’t been an easy series between the Ukrainian and the
Spaniard and with the tournament being in Suarez Navarro’s home country, the
pressure would weigh heavily on the world number four. Svitolina easily managed
a victory against Alize Cornet Saturday getting two days off to prepare for an
important match. She lost their last match at Indian Wells where an injury
caused Svitolina to stagger in defeat. With last year being her best on clay,
she’ll try to counter the balance scales and return the lead to her name.
The Spaniard jumped out to set obstacles in her opponent’s
path by securing her service hold, then consolidating with a break. Svitolina
had a triple break in her end but nearly blew them until an error from Suarez
Navarro blocked deuce from going into play. A clean game with solid aggression allowed
Svitolina to level the score through four. She showed a growing dominance
against Suarez Navarro’s serve taking the fifth before rushing through her own
service game for a 4-2 lead.
Plenty of response on return game beat down Suarez Navarro
who got into net front rallies with the Ukrainian only to lose due to the
accurate ball placement. Svitolina served for the set as she bulldozed her way
to keeping the Spaniard behind the baseline setting up shots way out of reach.
She contained her first set point attempt landing it long but inside where Suarez
Navarro swung and missed bringing an end to 34 minutes of play. Svitolina had
the stronger second serve scoring 14 winners to Suarez Navarro’s six.
The 29-year-old showed a will to battle for control of the
second set fighting every point with Svitolina to the point of deuce. They went
five breaks where on her fourth AD point attempt and seven and a half minutes
of play, Suarez Navarro captured a much-needed win. She mirrored the start of
the first set earning the break on Svitolina with the hope of controlling
further on.
Svitolina followed her role and made it a 2-2 score putting
them back to square. The players went on serve where the 29-year-old set the
new pace with the Ukrainian in two. An opportunity to break Svitolina came in
the seventh game with success taking her first lead in the match. A call for
the trainer arrived during the break before new balls came to the world number
four who would try to gain a break and keep Suarez Navarro in reach.
She gained a footing in the eighth but tried to bring her
lob game into action only to watch it falter. The Spaniard outplayed the fourth
seed getting into a focused rally that gave her the AD point and a 5-3 lead. A
bad spilled occurred in the next game as Suarez Navarro took a fall back before
smashing an ace for her first. Svitolina answered with three straight winners before
a fight back from the Spaniard ended in defeat losing ground.
The Ukrainian was still on the edge of facing a third set
serving for the match listening to words of encouragement from coach Andrew
Bettles. Playing every single point and believing in herself were what had to
be done in order to contain a straight sets win. She forced the 29-year-old
into extra frames earning a great hold in the tenth stating that she was ready
to take on everything in her way.
The Spaniard pulled a big service hold out showing
tremendous push for every point getting the edge once more to force the world
number four into a tight situation. She handled things like a cake walk,
blanking Suarez Navarro in the 12th to setup the tiebreak. The
Spaniard got the scoring started with Svitolina answering the call.
A double fault handed Suarez Navarro a break which she built
to open a gap against the Ukrainian. Gaining a 6-3 lead, Suarez Navarro forced
a shot that Svitolina sent wide to set up a pivotal third set after 61 minutes.
Both had numerous winners and unforced errors but the edge of first serve
points was with the Spaniard who earned a shot to still win the match.
The final set saw Svitolina setting the tone of service
holds forcing Suarez Navarro to answer her own game while trailing. Though she
had difficulties getting leveled with the world number four, the Spaniard had
some inconsistencies with her offense that would require management as the set
got closer to a conclusion.
The score remained deadlocked at four all until Svitolina
opened the door losing energy to get to some of Suarez Navarro’s shots. The
Spaniard had a 40-0 run, losing a point before an error by the Ukrainian ended
the ninth with the 29-year-old back in position for success. With cheers of “si
se peude” coming before her serve for the match the Spaniard let it all soak in
while Svitolina dealt with the nerves. Bad beats were taking the world number
four out of contention handing Suarez Navarro three match points.
Her first went long of the baseline before the Ukrainian
landed a winning return leaving one left for the 29-year-old. A five shot rally
saw Suarez Navarro’s return land wide that set up deuce and a chance for
Svitolina to save the set. A long rally ended with the Spaniard getting deep
with the ball before scoring a cross court shot. Another wide drive blew the
fourth match point for Suarez Navarro who delivered another to hand Svitolina
her first AD point of the game.
The Spaniard saved the game for a third break but not before
expressing her pleads to the crowd to keep their composure. On Suarez Navarro’s
fifth match point the rally turned very dramatic as the 29-year-old fell after
making the return, getting up just in time to see the ball landing long of the
baseline that gave her the massive win of the night ending 2 hours and 15
minutes.
What will surely rest on the mind of the Spaniard, the 29-year-old
would get the rest of the night off to prepare for her round of 16 match that
will pit her against Bernarda Pera or Johanna Konta.
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