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| Elina Svitolina celebrates a strong outcome against Dayana Yastremska in the third round of the US Open. |
Dayana Yastremska was schooled to destruction at the US Open Friday night. Elina Svitolina showed her the ropes playing beautiful tennis
at Louis Armstrong Stadium to win 6-2, 6-0 at the Billy Jean King National
Tennis Center.
The up and coming Ukrainian took on her idol compatriot for
the first time. In what was a long-awaited matchup, the two Ukrainians had
plenty of tactics to use on one another leaving the fifth seed to prepare for
anything that Yastremska brought to the hardcourt. The 19-year-old won more
WTA titles faster than Svitolina that showed her ability to pull off an upset. With
her experienced opponent having yet dropped a set the teen would need to
pressure and keep it heavily with focus.
Yastremska served to open the match but erred twice, double-faulted and gave the break to Svitolina on a forehand shot going wide. Eight
points went one way with the 24-year-old drawing errors from Yastremska who was
not yet up to speed. Her points streak increased to nine before Svitolina’s
first error ended one-way traffic. It didn’t take anything from the fifth seed
as she watched the errors continue from Yastremska who fell three games down
and two double faults committed.
The 24-year-old committed her first double but soon had a
second recorded giving Yastremska a break chance. An ace from Svitolina forced
deuce but her young opponent showed slight improvement warming up for the
challenge. A failed challenge followed by a wide return blew her best chance to
get on the board and instead sat 0-4. Opportunities to serve a good game came
in the fifth when Svitolina erred enough to see the 19-year-old smash a pair of
winners that ended her slide.
She fought well in the sixth but came up short of a break watching
Svitolina hold on a break of deuce. Linking a second hold allowed Yastremska to
get comfortable with her commitment level using it to test Svitolina. Serving
for the set, the 24-year-old got into trouble with the first serve forehand and
the sudden range of Yastremska who fought for a breakpoint. Svitolina put down
her third ace and watched a fast return go long ending the first in 31 minutes.
Having a better handing of her serve than Yastremska who made 19 unforced
errors, the fifth seed was comfortably in control.
She rolled it into the second set earning two break points
before taking the game from the teen. Consolidating the break was a piece of
cake as her opponent racked more errors on the return sending her back into a grown
deficit. A fourth double fault troubled the 32nd seed who despite
playing a great 20 shot rally was once again broken apart. Svitolina carried on
and held firm in the fourth as her opponent made primary mistakes that only led
to getting to the finish easier for her compatriot.
.@ElinaSvitolina advances to the second week of the @usopen for a third time with a victory over compatriot Dayana Yastremska --> https://t.co/8xgdgojEAD pic.twitter.com/0y0Rmfgklh— WTA (@WTA) August 31, 2019
A triple break for the world number five set her to serve
for the match in the sixth where she handled a tricky drop shot but earned two
match points to end 54 minutes with Yastremska recording her 36th
unforced error.
“It was definitely a special moment for Ukraine,” Svitolina
said to Andrew Krasny after the match. “Me and Dayana are from the same city in
Odessa so it was a special match for the both of us.”
While they didn’t play evening, the fifth seed had a terrific outcome with a serve percentage above 80 percent and notched just
seven winners and outscored the teen 54-27 “I think I was very consistent from
the baseline,” she said. “I was serving very good at the moments that I had to
and in the end, I think the experience played a little bit tonight and very
pleased so far with the way I’m playing and looking forward to the next match.”
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