The Ukrainian hoped that three was the charm to get her beyond the last eight on the Paris clay courts. In her way was a big problem for many opponents as the unseeded Argentine stunned the tournament to become the first woman from her country since 2004 to make it this far in a slam. Though she hasn’t played against anyone in the top ten, the 23-year-old had what it took to pull off the biggest upset in the women’s draw but the task would be heavy. Svitolina increased her level of strength, adding a controlled win against Caroline Garcia. To go further than ever, the third seed knew what had to be done to end this Latin Cinderella story.
Getting control of serve right off the racket was an essential moment but for Svitolina, it turned out to be a bigger problem. Podoroska returned very well despite making a couple errors in the first. She forced the Ukrainian to deuce before attacking to break her. The third seed returned the favor, taking advantage of an error to force deuce and break back. The Argentine turned things around with a hold that came on a third deuce game. With the 2-1 lead, she went for broke and trounced Svitolina in the fourth, opening the gap.
Podoroska had her offense running very well as she forced Svitolina into errors that secured the fifth, making it a 4-1 shocker. The third seed became frustrated with her forehand errors, letting out her feelings verbally. Another break for Podoroska made it 5-1 as her strategy of moving the Ukrainian around worked to her favor. Serving for the set, the 23-year-old got into a jam and allowed Svitolina to break back.
With another game to hold Podoroska from ending the first, Svitolina fell into a 0-30 hole notching to errors and a double fault. It gave Podoroska triple set point which gave her the victory on a winner down the line ending the set in 34 minutes. The differences came on the number of winners each produced and for Podoroska taking the win, her 17 to Svitolina’s two made it obvious.
The Argentine blasted so many in games that the errors (while low) put holes in Svitolina’s return game. She came into the second, shutting out the Ukrainian before a hold of serve from the third seed leveled things early. A key break back for the world number five gave her the lead for the first time in the match, hoping to conduct a better outcome for herself. The two continued on the breaks of serve with Podoroska running up the forehand errors from her end.
After seven games and a 4-3 lead for the Ukrainian, the Argentine had 13 errors to her opponent’s six. Despite having troubles, Podoroska didn’t take her efforts out of the equation as another break of serve kept the set level. With Svitolina unable to counter, the 23-year-old went for her chance in the ninth to do so. Holding a key service game put her in place to pressure the third seed to serve herself into a push for more games.
Great placement near the net allowed Svitolina to deny Podoroska of any cheap lob points and instead, smash her way to them. They fought through every point, with the Argentine staying in tow with her opponent. A second hit into the net brought up match point for Podoroska, who blew one into the net to force deuce. She earned a second from an error by Svitolina but after a long rally, her plan to lob for the win went sour for a third time, bringing the game back to deuce.
It appeared that three was a charm for the young unseeded player as Svitolina committed a forehand shot that went wide. The winning point was on a net-front crosscourt that gave her a huge win in 1 hour and 19 minutes.
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