Elina Svitolina achieves first win of the season over Jessica Pegula

Elina Svitolina plays against American Jessica Pegula at the Abu Dhabi Women's tennis open Thurday

Elina Svitolina had some rust to shake off but came through at the Abu Dhabi Women’s Tennis Open with the win Thursday night. The second seed held back Jessica Pegula in straight sets winning the key breakpoints played to win 6-4, 6-3 on centre court at the Zayed Sports City International Tennis Centre. 

The two met for the first time in a new location for both. With the inability to begin the WTA tour like always in Australia, the ladies began their talents in the U.A.E. where they could warm up for a continuing environment of tennis. The Ukrainian earned the second seed as the ranking fifth player in the world and gained the attention of the American. The 25-year-old last played at the French Open where she suffered an early loss. Svitolina ended her year at Ostrava where a fight against Maria Sakkari ended in defeat. With time in the new country that marked its first hosting of a WTA tournament, both Svitolina and Pegula wanted to get their match off on the right foot. 

The American opened the match with a good hold of serve with one point going to the Ukrainian. Once Svitolina got on the ball, she let Pegula have it with a strong response, followed by a break of serve. The second seed consolidated another service hold for her third game in a row before Pegula got back on track. By the sixth, she was still two games down, but a service to love brought her within reach after seven with a well-placed net shot. 

The eighth was highly contested as Svitolina had game point but watched as Pegula forced deuce. She battled through six breaks while creating breakpoint chances only to lose out on her opportunity to level the score. She kept close with the Ukrainian in the ninth, scoring well to go for broke. Svitolina battled hard in the tenth, finding a way to seal up the set with a groundstroke strategy that took Pegula down in 39 minutes. 

The American knew that she had to pick up the pace to stay with the second seed for as long as possible. When she opened the second set, Pegula pressed the issue and held Svitolina to two points. The Ukrainian answered but faced adversity from the American who didn’t make it easy. They played the next pair of games with both going to deuce as holding serve was difficult to achieve. Svitolina knew that she couldn’t let it be the key to her slipping up too much against Pegula. 

She missed on a couple chances but rallied back to place winners away from the American and reach a game point. Though it came on deuce, Svitolina reached a 4-2 lead with Pegula forcing the error from her end in the sixth. It was the moment that Svitolina awaited as she took the eighth and blasted away for a strong service hold. Having Pegula on the ropes, the American ran out of maneuvering that gave the second seed match point and walk off with the win in 1 hour and 20 minutes. 

While it was a normally timed win for Svitolina, she committed 26 of the 51 errors made on the court. With four double faults and a serve under 60 percent, her second had to be better to show her strengths as the world ranking number five.