Elina Svitolina had the longest match of her career come at a point where making the quarterfinal was possible at the BNP Paribas Open Tuesday evening. The 24 year old went to hell and back against Ashleigh Barty who gave it her all only to run out of gas in a stunning three setter 7-6(8), 5-7, 6-4 on Stadium Four at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden. It was the first time in the Ukrainian’s career that she made the last eight in the tournament and one she will never forget.
The series had been running one way for the Ukrainian and with her never getting beyond the fourth round, the history gives her a major advantage. She defeated Barty twice on hard courts the last two seasons with the one in Miami occurring in the round of 16. With her third try to get beyond the fourth round at Indian Wells, Svitolina’s strength had more than a shot at succeeding. Barty had yet to drop a set in the desert in her wins over Tatijana Maria and Jennifer Brady making her first top ten match an important one to be the stronger player.
She contained service to start the match before going on the prowl to break Svitolina. Despite not doing so, she continued to stand ahead on the score forcing the Ukrainian to level with her efforts. They stayed on serve with Svitolina playing slightly stronger while Barty had two double faults but stayed on serve through seven. The sixth seed called down coach Andrew Bettles who told her how to get Barty out of her comfort zone and stay with her own offense that was running well.
She took the positivity and secured another holds to be in a four-all tie with Barty. Svitolina’s consistency on both sides of the ball saw a break chance come together in the ninth but two saved break points helped Barty to deuce. She opened up the court forcing the sixth seed to run all over but errors ruined her chance to easily put it away. On a fourth break point chance, Svitolina got the win on a final error from the Australian to take the lead in the late stages.
On serve for the set, the Ukrainian committed her first double fault and got behind with the serve rattled. She handed Barty a triple break with another error before another fell wide to push into extra frames. With Svitolina down, Barty cruised to a service to love and attacked right from the first point of the 12th.
Down 30-15, the world number six got aggressive to try and secure a tiebreak but went for a low shot that gave Barty set point. The Australian missed the line that saved Svitolina who gained an AD point on the Aussie’s error into the net. On a second AD point, a return from Barty landed long to go to a pivotal tiebreak. Barty went for the open court strategy that worked for two points but lost the lead with an error and good point winner from Svitolina.
It stayed tight until Barty delivered a crosscourt and line drive hit that forced the error for 5-3. She reached 6-3 for a chance at the set but lost all of them due to Svitolina’s determination to recover lost ground. Barty showed that she could still cover the court but errors ruined another chance that brought the two to seven-all. It was Svitolina’s turn to have set point at 8-7 but a huge serve from Barty erased it.
She thought she had Svitolina beat with another open court attack but watched the ball return land wide. Another chance for the Ukrainian to be successful finally came with the 9-8 lead that brought the set to an end on Barty’s forehand error finishing a dramatic one hour and six minute ordeal.
After Svitolina returned from a break off court, she got back into the mix with Barty going for the break but failed to get ahead. She kept Svitolina from forcing deuce to make a statement that she was nowhere near done. She went after the break in the third but the Ukrainian had the answers with big points. Her second double fault put her back for a moment but two big points kept her ahead on the score.
Three missed chances for Barty in the fourth were a huge moment for the world number six but one long ball and an ace from the Australian got her back on track. The 12th seed got in front of the net to answer Svitolina and go to deuce. A costly error gave the 24 year old the break needed but a break back for Barty to cut the gap in half. Svitolina called Bettles down who told her to keep hitting, stay focused on every point and gave her ideas on how to counter the tactics of the 22 year old.
Gaining an advantage on the break was a tough task as Barty refused to go down on serve. She fought back Svitolina through a few breaks before securing the sixth that leveled the score. They both remained consistent on struggling with the serve but held through seven. A huge opportunity came for the 24 year old as she successfully broke Barty in the eighth to serve for the match. Barty’s defense answered Svitolina to gain a footing for break point which was given to her on a long ball from the Ukrainian.
The tenth was huge for Barty who needed the win to keep the match going. She had the lead but went to deuce on an error into the net. Svitolina scored a huge winner for match point but a thrilling rally ended with Barty’s return catching the line. She forced an error from the sixth seed but hit the ball too hard to return to deuce. She committed a bad return to give Svitolina a second chance but caught the line to deny a second match point.
A huge ace with the AD point clinched Barty to a five-all tie that got very tense for both players. Barty somehow pulled off a massive break to love which threatened a third set to be played if Svitolina couldn’t stop her. The 12th spelled trouble for her as Barty reached set point four times but failed to put it away. She somehow got a fifth that Svitolina hit back wide enough to end the longest game of the match and move into a pivotal third set after 2 hour and 16 minutes elapsed.
There was nothing left but to play and see who could last the time and effort put on court and right from the start, it was the Australian who answered. Barty overcome a 40-15 stance from Svitolina to force deuce and went three breaks where her only AD point was enough for the break. A hold to love that hadn’t occurred since the fifth game of the first set gave the 22 year old an early lead. Svitolina denied her a third game win before calling for the physio who came on court to tape her right leg.
When the medical timeout was concluded, Barty served to open the fourth, got behind and forced deuce to save two break points. She secured the hold with a forceful forehand against Svitolina who was trailing this much for the first time. Giving up a third was not in her cards as she closed the break gap and won on a huge point to bring the margin to a game. After the win, Svitolina called for Bettles who told her to get underneath the ball and rip it while keeping her confidence level high.
A lot of effort from her part resulted in a break to make it 3-3 to completely erase Barty’s lead. A fight for the seventh was practically a tug of war but after two long breaks, Svitolina held to put the Australian under pressure. Barty fell apart at the wrong time giving the 24 year old triple break to clinch a 5-3 stand to serve for the match. Just when it looked as if Barty was done and dusted, she gained a break point but was quickly denied by a forced error. She proved that she was not willing to give in by gaining another break which was secured on a challenge that stunned Svitolina.
She brushed it aside in the tenth as Barty hand her two match points in the game but an ace brought her to deuce making it the fourth match point saved. A fifth would not come as she hit the ball back into the net that ended a thrilling 3 hour and 11 minute match which was the longest of the 2019 WTA season. “It was a very very tough match,” Svitolina said after the match. “When I woke up this morning I didn’t really expect that I would play three hours and so I was fighting until the last point.”
The effort gave her a fifth consecutive victory over the Australian that saw them tally 282 combined points with her outscoring Barty 143-139. “This was one of the toughest matches against her and she improves massively for the past year and has a great game. I’m sure well have many more matches in the future.” As for her, she will go into Wednesday needing all the rest possible to take on Marketa Vondroussova who was also experiencing her first quarterfinal in a premier mandatory.
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