Elina Svitolina clenches her first during her second-round match against Angelique Kerber at the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix Thursday

Elina Svitolina had to work hard in her opening match at the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix Thursday night. The Ukrainian fought through the first and moved comfortably to victory in a 7-6(5), 6-3 score against Angelique Kerber on center court at the Porsche Arena in Stuttgart. It clinched her 16th win this season and fifth quarterfinal appearance. The German has lost seven times against Svitolina, who continued to be tough to handle. 

This was the 14th matchup between the two tennis stars and the first since 2018 when they met on clay. The Ukrainian had Kerber beat in Rome on her way to winning the Italian Open for the second straight year. Since her semifinal defeat at Miami, Svitolina reached a new milestone in her life, getting engaged to tennis star Gael Monfils. With wedding plans on the horizon, the current world number five would try to get back to business and reach a potential ninth win over the German. In her ninth appearance in the tournament, the two-time winner of the Porsche GP, who last played nearly a month ago would have to shake off the rust and get into action. 

They opened the match with a long shot rally with Svitolina striking first on a forehand line drive winner. Kerber went on to hold serve in the opening game but got shut out by the fourth seed, who racked up the winners on serve in the second. Svitolina backed up the hold of serve with a break of Kerber, who erred and watched the Ukrainian play the court well. The German answered with a break back to love, fighting to stay close with the fourth seed. 

They stayed neck and neck through the next six games with each deadlocked at five all. After Kerber made the threat to take the opening set, but Svitolina dug in to level things and fought big during the 11th game to try and score the break. The two went three breaks where Kerber countered every breakpoint the Ukrainian put together and succeeded in holding service. With one last opportunity, Svitolina served to try and force a tiebreak and did so with tricks up her sleeve. 

It brought Kerber into her first tiebreak of the season, staying close with the Ukrainian through six points played. They continued playing stride for stride until a double fault on the ninth point gave Svitolina an edge. The 26-year-old reached set point at 6-4, earning it on a forehand drive into the net from Kerber ending a tight set that lasted 61 minutes. The two made very few mistakes through 12 games and a tiebreak, but three more unforced errors for Kerber than Svitolina made the ultimate difference. 

The Ukrainian went into the second set very comfortably as she held serve with Kerber held to a point. Kerber avoided a break chance for the fourth seed, securing her service in the second. Svitolina fired up the afterburners and launched out with another solid service game before breaking Kerber apart in the fourth. After the German failed to save breakpoints, she went down 4-1 hoping to recover on serve. 

She did hold from her end, but the fourth seed moved closer to the match victory in the seventh. Kerber managed to win one more game, but with the balls in Svitolina’s hands to serve for a quarterfinal spot, the Ukrainian did just that. Adding another great placement, the 26-year-old watched Kerber make mistakes, earn two match points and see it all over on a pop-up outside the court to complete her win in 1 hour and 31 minutes. 

“It was a real challenge for me to start the tour match against Angie,” Svitolina said. “She plays really well and it was a really tough match. We have tough battles and I was expecting nothing more than that.” Up next for her is Petra Kvitova, who she plays for the 12th time on Friday. “We played quite a few times including on the hard courts so it’s going to be interesting to play here and looking forward to the quarterfinal.”