Svitolina wins swiftly in three sets over Kasatkina

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Elina Svitolina pulled off the fastest comeback of her career at the BNL Internazionali D’Italia Thursday. The world number four who threw the first set played to her abilities against Daria Kasatkina to win 0-6, 6-3, 6-2 at Next Gen Arena on the grounds of Foro Italico in Rome. The defending champion showed poise to win her fourth straight and second this season against the young Russian to advance to the quarterfinals.

The defending champion has quite a feat over the Russian who she faced earlier this season in Dubai taking through in straight sets with a shutout. With her performance two days ago, the Ukrainian’s strength on clay would be slightly different. Kasatkina’s power to fight proved well in her recent bouts against Garbine Muguruza and Petra Kvitova. While she hasn’t face anyone of Svitolina’s rank so far in Rome, the 21 year old would receive the same challenges facing the defending champion.

It was clear that she got the hint taking a break from the world number four that made it 2-0 to start the set. Despite having a double fault on her second game of serve, Kasatkina grew her winning streak over the Ukrainian due to unforced errors from her end and a slip that caused her some pain in the palm of her right hand. The issue only made winning the double break easy for Kasatkina who dictated the game swiftly to be well ahead.

Something was clearly wrong in the game of Svitolina’s who was down 0-5 needing a conference with coach Andrew Bettles who knew that despite being on the edge of defeat had to keep her confident. Since the slip, the defending champion recorded one point as she gave up a third consecutive love game to the Russian ending the set in 21 minutes. What looked to be a complete flop by the 23 year almost had signs of her throwing the match but going into the second set was a different scene from the fourth seed.

She put together a break to love to start the second set that loosened the skills of Kasatkina. Svitolina double faulted in the second but held through a short standoff on deuce to come out with the win on serve taking a 2-0 hold. It was nearly 3-0 as Kasatkina was down 0-30 but came back winning four straight points to get into the set with the fourth seed. She leveled the score at two all breaking Svitolina that consolidated the hold in the next game.

With control back in the hands of the Russian, Svitolina called for Bettles who told her to counter with the backhand and stay positive. She answered in the sixth digging in to her serve game in the sixth to level back with Kasatkina. A key break in the seventh gave Svitolina some control that soon turned into a 5-3 hold for the world number four. She made a statement in the ninth capturing another break to even the match at one set each with one to go.

Svitolina continued with the winning streak adding her fifth straight to start the deciding set with a hold of serve. Finding her groove in the second made the day difficult for Kasatkina who did everything to stay in contention with the Ukrainian. She forced deuce in the second game saving break points in the process before clawing out the win that ended Svitolina’s dominance. Kasatkina made it a second game win to her name taking Svitolina in a hard fight for success. Her efforts were doused through the next two games as Svitolina regained a footing to take two straight testing the Russian each time taking the lead back.

The Ukrainian contained another lengthy winning streak that had her on a one way course lead 5-2 over Kasatkina who showed her loss of power to convert the situation back to her end. The 21 year old served to stay alive in the match saving two match points in the process. Despite forcing deuce, she couldn’t get a grip on the AD point as she fell under the skills of Svitolina who took the victory on final error from the Russian completing a well-focused comeback in 1 hour and 36 minutes.

With the ability to overcome a disastrous opening set like Svitolina managed on court, the world number four would brush it off to prepare for Friday’s match up against the winner between Angelique Kerber and Maria Sakkari.