Elina Svitolina ups her game to advance at Strasbourg

Elina Svitolina gives the crowd a wave after her win against Jil Teichmann at Strasbourg

Elina Svitolina had a better performance coming out of her game at the Internationaux de Strasbourg Thursday. The Ukrainian reeled in the victory on Patrice Dominguez defeating Jil Teichmann 6-4, 6-3 to advance at the Strasbourg Tennis Club. 

This marked the first time they met and for the second seed, she would need her quarterfinal in Strasbourg to go well against the Swiss. In her opening round against Magda Linette, the Ukrainian needed a tiebreak to hold the first and the entirety of the second to advance. It was clear that her skills were rusty having little competitive action since the shutdown. 

Teichmann had yet to drop a set in her two matches making her just another threat for the 26-year-old. Teichmann pulled off an impressive break of the world number five and consolidated it with a strong hold in the second. Svitolina got on the board to avoid going deeper against the Swiss, but couldn’t close the gap in the fourth. Through five games, Teichmann stayed ahead, until Svitolina found her moment to strike. From 40-15 down, the second seed rallied to force deuce and win the first point that was played on it. 

With an important hold in the seventh, she took the lead from Teichmann but found herself back in a stalemate. Despite giving up a point, Svitolina held the ninth and went for broke with a push in the tenth. Gaining a breakpoint at 30-all, the second seed earned her opportunity to take the set in 41 minutes with Teichmann returning the ball wide of the line. Svitolina served 72 percent from the first serve with four aces in tow. While she had seven winners and unforced errors, the ten that Teichmann had on both sides showed that the small mistakes cost her in the end. 

After a hold to start the second set, Svitolina captured a break to love, opening the gap on Teichmann who had work to do. She held the third and captured a key break that released a lot of her frustrations. She made it three in a row with the double break on Svitolina, but the world number five ended her slide with a break back to level. The battle for the lead in the seventh became the longest game of the match with Teichmann forcing deuce. She blew her break point chance on the second AD point, leading Svitolina to lead 4-3. 

A challenge for the second seed came in the eighth when getting a gap on her opponent was quite a task. Teichmann saved a breakpoint to bring up deuce and went four breaks with her. Unfortunately, the costly error handed Svitolina the 5-3 lead with the chance to serve for the match. Showing a lot of comfort, the second seed easily reached three match points against a struggling Teichmann, punching her ticket to the semifinal with a shot near the back of the court ending the day in 1 hour and 22 minutes. 

“ It was a good fight from Jill,” Svitolina said about her matchup. “I think both of us play at a really good level and those kinds of matches give you confidence.” Avoiding the sets to go further was a big accomplishment as she dictated the last couple of games while minimizing the errors. With the move into the final four, she’ll await the winner between Katerina Siniakova or fourth-seeded Aryna Sabalenka.