Elina Svitolina found herself in trouble in more ways than one but came out of it by the skin of her teeth at the Western & South Open Tuesday night. Svetlana Kuznetsova gave her a tremendous up and down battle through three sets before faltering in the late stages giving the Ukrainian a 7-6(1), 4-6, 6-4 win on grandstand court at the Lindner Family Tennis Center.
This was the third meeting for the two Europeans and the first in two years playing all hard court matches previous. The Russian veteran got the edge on Svitolina back in Moscow where they played a tiebreak before Kuznetsova went on to win it in three sets. The 33 year old started making her way deep into tournaments after Wimbledon becoming her ninth tournament where she was ousted in the early rounds.
When she came into the second half of the hard court season, she managed a thrilling victory in Washington to win the title for a second time. Svitolina couldn’t make it back to back in Montreal losing out to Sloane Stephens prior to the final. While she was left with no choice but to brush it off, the world number five wanted to make good on Cincinnati before preparing for the final major.
She served aggressively to get ahead on the score but some of her forehand shots landed wide to give Kuznetsova a chance to break on deuce. She held on the first break ready to take on the Russian’s opening serve. She matched Svitolina with a good service hold making good on both sides of the serve. In her second time with the ball in hand, Kuznetsova rushed it too much allowing Svitolina the first break to take a 3-1 lead. She was still focused with great ball placement that earned her a serve to love with a line drive winner.
A fight from the 33 year old allowed her to hold serve in the sixth but needed more to come in order to level the score. Svitolina had other ideas starting with a well-focused winner at the net to make a statement. Kuznetsova delivered one of her own playing strong on a net front lob fest that ended with her scoring points on two straight occasions. They already had five each in the set but it wouldn’t help them in the long term. Svitolina got back to business but double faulted to force deuce for Kuznetsova. She battled to gain the AD point which came to her on the third break before putting the game to bed.
With her a game down of the Ukrainian and a break in, Kuznetsova tried to consolidate it with a break but fell behind. She somehow rallied back to hold on the first break to even the score at four all. With all ground lost, Svitolina was in trouble losing out on yet another serve that had the Russian on a four game winning streak. She called Andrew Bettles down to find out what was wrong and to make her opponent move.
She did just that on the break to force the set to go on hoping for a chance to pen the set in her name. She saved a break in the 11th to force deuce on serve but she watched as the Russian came to the net with the AD point for the win and another break. Svitolina faced serious pressure when trying to avoid going down a set but Kuznetsova wasn’t making it easy as she delivered a lob that went off the net catching the 23 year old off guard to force deuce. She continued with the tactics that were clearly working against the Ukrainian but double faulted to help Svitolina send them to a tiebreak.
It became the second one between the players and started with Svitolina growing a sizable lead for herself. She took a 4-0 stand with Kuznetsova erring on the returns from the forehand. It allowed the world number five to dictate getting the Russian out of the way to land easy winners. It was soon 6-0 for the fifth seed who went for it on the changeover but instead handed Kuznetsova a point on the board.
She secured it with a forehand shot from the Russian into the net giving Svitolina a sigh of relief after one hour and five minutes. 97 points were recorded in the set with Svitolina edging her opponent on keeping the serve percentage high. Kuznetsova had her on net points winning 9 of 12 and 17 winners. The Ukrainian called for the trainer to deal with a blister that had come on her right foot during the break. When she was all taped up and ready to go, she broke Kuznetsova to get back on track.
She had two games on the Russian before her opponent got a hold locked down in the third. She smashed away for another break that gave her back the momentum. When she had three in a row, Svitolina called out Bettles who told her to change up the dictation stop giving Kuznetsova the same shot and locking down her skills to regain control of the set. It didn’t change for her through seven as Kuznetsova was maintaining her hold of the set wanting the chance to force a decider.
Svitolina got a much needed win to keep her close but as soon as the Russian got the 5-4 lead she was facing a third set with pressure all on her to keep the set alive. She faced the end of the set with a forehand going wide that clinched Kuznetsova’s hopes to play three after 48 minutes. The 33 year old had an improved first serve over 80 percent with 10 winners and five of eight from the net. The Ukrainian did well to answer her deep in the court with her defense struggling to remain consistent.
She scored a second straight break to start the final set followed by Kuznetsova who wanted to keep in touch with the Ukrainian. She watched Svitolina take another service game from her before holding in the fourth to open the gap she wanted most. It soon turned into a 4-1 lead for the fifth seed who hoped she could put the match to rest keeping Kuznetsova at bay. She fell on serve in the sixth giving the Russian enough room to capture a break and the cut the margin to half.
The 33 year old looked to get a hold against Svitolina who couldn’t lock the break down early finding herself in trouble on deuce. With a push from the energy left in her, the Ukrainian gained the leverage needed to serve for the match with a 5-2 hold. Her serve began to stumble giving Kuznetsova three break points in the process. She gained one of them back but sent the next ball long to keep on playing. The door was open for the veteran to have a smooth win but double faulted for her eighth of the match. It gave Svitolina chances to come after the points but fell apart with Kuznetsova sitting a game down. The Ukrainian had one more chance to put her opponent away calling out Bettles for one last talk on what to do.
On the second attempt for the match, Svitolina played tremendous defense against Kuznetsova who gave Svitolina three match points where she clinched it on a cross court return ending a tough battle in 2 hours and 41 minutes. “It was a tough match today,” said Svitolina after the match, “Svetlana was playing really really good and really confident today. She’s coming back and winning recently is something massive for her. It’s always tough to play against a player who is at the top of the game but I’m very happy to come out with the win.”
She’ll use her moments of keeping positive to prepare for her third round match against the winner between Petra Martic and Amanda Anisimova.
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