Barbora Strycova achieves upset in third round of the French Open

Barbora Krejcikova clenches her first during her third-round match at the French Open, 

Elina Svitolina couldn’t build up momentum to save herself from exiting the French Open Saturday. The Ukrainian was forced out of position by Barbora Krejcikova, who got plenty of momentum in action and pulled off the upset winning 6-3, 6-2 on Philippe Chatrier Court at Roland Garros. It marked the eighth match win in a row for the Czech, who had a place in the second week.  

The two met for the first time and both came off straight-set wins to enter round three. The Ukrainian took down back-to-back first-timers to the tournament, while the Czech faced some full-time players on the tour to face her second top ten player. While the Ukrainian hadn’t gone deep into a clay-court tournament this season, Krejcikova left the door open to breaking Svitolina since her title in last week in Strasbourg. The fifth seed hasn’t been in a full dominant form but hoped that she could produce another win to make it into the second week. 

Krejcikova ran into trouble, finding herself down 0-40 down against the fifth seed. She managed to rally back to deuce and break the Ukrainian to start the match. Pulling off a huge feat early, the Czech consolidated with her service hold in the second to dig in well. Svitolina turned things around, overcoming four winners from the Czech to force deuce, score an ace and hold serve. The 26-year-old watched as Krejcikova committed unforced errors on every point leading to the score being tied. 

With a break in hand, the fifth seed went after the lead, nearly breaking Krejcikova to love but still captured the double break. After sliding three games, the Czech struck back on serving to level at three-all as the two closed in on the business end of the set. Krejcikova regained the lead in the seventh, breaking Svitolina, who had notched a few errors on serve to sit back. The eighth was her moment to fight and break the Czech back. They went to deuce 13 times and played more than 20 minutes as Krejcikova fought to capture the AD point that eluded her eight times. 

With the victory locked up and positioned at 5-3, the Czech regrouped to pressure with Svitolina on serving for the set. The 25-year-old reached two set points until a ball overcooked by the Ukrainian gave Krejcikova the win after 58 minutes of play. The two played 89 points with the Czech doubling the winners (22) over Svitolina, who was a set down for the first time this tournament. She left the court to try and turn things around, returning minutes later to start the second. 

Krejcikova got them rolling where they once again played a game to deuce. This time, the Czech didn’t allow it to go more than three breaks, saving a breakpoint before holding serve. Krejcikova caught a break as the Ukrainian double-faulted on serve and produced an error at the end of the second to fall in her sixth game. With a terrific moment on the shoulders of Krejcikova, the fifth seed had to deliver a blow to get out of trouble. Svitolina fought through every point in the third to break and end the long slide. 

The 25-year-old responded with a service to remain intact with her offense, following it up with another break of Svitolina for a commanding 4-1 lead. With a big hole to climb out of, Svitolina dug in on serve in the sixth to get a second win to her name, cutting Krejcikova’s gap in half. The Czech felt a little bit of pressure in the seventh game but kept her offense in check to wreak havoc on Svitolina, who had to serve to stay in the match. Krejcikova played a strategy to deliver short cross courts while the fifth seed held to the baseline. It soon led to two match points for Krejcikova, who watched as a long ball from the Ukrainian sealed the upset that took 1 hour and 39 minutes.