Svitolina ends Allertova swiftly in straight sets win

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Elina Svitolina had her focus together early Monday morning at the Australian Open. The fourth seed gave very little to Denisa Allertova who faltered numerous times giving the Ukrainian a 6-3, 6-0 win at Rod Laver Arena on the grounds of Melbourne Park. It was the first time Svitolina reached the quarterfinal for the first time in the year’s opening major with another step towards world number one.

The two met almost two years ago in Doha where the 21-year-old Ukrainian suffered first round loss to the Czech in straight sets. Now 23, the world number four hoped to not repeat the same score and move herself deeper in the tournament than she already had. Allertova had yet to drop a set in the year’s first major while Svitolina had one big obstacle that took three to defeat. With the memory of her defeat by the 24-year-old Czech star, Svitolina would do everything in her power to not let it happen again.

Allertova chose to serve first starting just a few minutes before midnight with cooler conditions. The opening game saw her fighting Svitolina for a hold that went to deuce but saw the Ukrainian win the break on the second chance. The Czech turned things around in the second breaking Svitolina with a big return winner to level the score. Svitolina nearly had a double break in hand but her sliced shot landed just outside giving Allertova a chance to counter.

She secured the first hold after three breaks showing her energy and focus was alive and well at the late hour. Svitolina leveled at two all with her first service hold and upped the score adding two more for a 4-2 stance. Allertova climbed back within one but witnessed the Ukrainian focus on capturing another hold that gave her a 5-3 hold. The 24-year-old was on the ropes as the unforced errors became too much giving Svitolina triple set point to finish the first in 36 minutes. She didn’t miss much in her quest for control losing on three points from the first serve nailing seven winners that created the unforced errors which totaled to 21 for Allertova.

Svitolina saw more tallying for her opponent through the first two games in the second set making it easy for her to gain a footing. The lead energized Svitolina’s serve which saw her winning 86 percent on the first serve through the first three games. It was soon a 4-0 run for the world number four having the game locked on serve that produced more victories. She was soon playing for the match in the sixth where Allertova tried to avoid the bagel.

She had a 40-15 run to hold but erred twice letting Svitolina force deuce. It was all said and done when the Ukrainian reached AD point for the first time to bring an end with a winner that finished her night in 57 minutes. Svitolina had a solid first serve that didn’t require much from the second which was at 45 percent overall. The17 winners were a secondary weapon that brought down Allertova quick.

“It was a great match tonight,” Svitolina said during her on court interview. “I always take one match at a time and having a great start at Brisbane gave me a lot of confidence going into this tournament.”

New ground would be on Svitolina’s horizon as she faced Belgium’s Elise Mertens who she defeated in the finals at Istanbul last season. “She’s playing good tennis this season and its gonna be really tough, but I’m prepared and it will be a good match and give it everything like always.”

Wozniacki overshadows Rybarikova to advance to Aussie Open quarterfinal

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Caroline Wozniacki was almost perfect in her fourth-round match at the Australian Open. The Dane barely missed much on court at Rod Laver Arena against Magdalena Rybarikova

 who she took for a 6-3, 6-0 win. It was the first time the 27-year-old advanced to the quarterfinals since 2012 looking to go further.

With one more match before entering the second week, the Dane found herself on an unstoppable run in her quest to become world number one again. She got through Kiki Bertens in straight sets dealing with a last-minute comeback that occurred in the second. With her 3-1 series lead over the Slovakian it was likely that she would remind the 29-year-old of her force of offense. Rybarikova put in a lot of energy in her last two matches that went three sets each coming out strong after a lopsided second set. While Wozniacki stood as a higher leveled opponent, she would try to put in plenty of work to pull off an upset midway through the tournament.  

Both started positively with holds of serve but a break due to winners helped the Slovakian take the lead in the set. She landed her seventh winner with a forehand drive near the line that had Wozniacki beaten on serve. The second seed followed suit with the break that took three tries on deuce to get even through four. Wozniacki consolidated a hold followed by a full break of the Rybarikova to give her a 4-2 hold.

The world number two’s game continued to rise as she kept the winning streak alive and well capping two straight holds. In her quest for the double break and set win Rybarikova held firm with a winning volley that ended Wozniacki’s streak. Despite overcoming a deficit on her serve, the Dane rallied two points to achieve set point on a winner closing the set out in 36 minutes with a backhanded winner. It was the 14^th from her in the set where she served 75 percent and won over three quarters of points from it.

She dominated the second set with a big 2-0 lead that angered Rybarikova. The Slovakian battled even after a 25-shot rally to force deuce with the Dane only to come up short and 0-3 down. Rybarikova tried to use the lobs to mess with Wozniacki’s pace it only made it easier for the world number two to counter with a solid winner that only increased her margin of victory. Wozniacki attained three breaks in the fifth to win and serve for the match.

The second seed coasted to a bagel against Rybarikova allowing her just one point in the sixth before ending the one hour and three-minute match with a high ball return landing long of the baseline.

“She’s a really tricky opponent,” Wozniacki said about her opponent after the match. “She picks up the pace and I didn’t really expect those forehands down the line. I started to calm down a little bit and started to get returns into play because she’s serving big and wait for the opportunity to attack.”

With a high amount of confidence reaching the second week of competition, she’ll go against Spain’s Carla Suarez Navarro on Tuesday. “Carla is a great woman,” she said about her next adversary. “I’ve played her so many time before. We’ve had marathons and a little bit of everything so I’m excited. It’s the quarterfinal and she’s an amazing player so were gonna have fun out there.”

Hurricanes blow away losing streak beating Red Wings 3-1

 Elias Lindholm #28 of the Carolina Hurricanes celebrates his first period goal with teammates Victor Rask #49 and Jordan Staal #11 as Andreas Athanasiou #72 of the Detroit Red Wings skates past during an NHL game at Little Caesars Arena on January 20, 2018 in Detroit, Michigan. (Photo by Dave Reginek/NHLI via Getty Images)

The Carolina Hurricanes started on time that left the Red Wings trailing on Saturday night. Their slow push to compete resulted in a 3-1 loss for them at Little Caesars Arena making it their second straight loss this week. Elias Lindholm had two goals on the night with goaltender Cam Ward earning a hard-earned win making 23 saves against Detroit for his first win since Jan. 4.

Detroit has had a lot of time off in the past few days without gaining wins in between the breaks. They face the hurricanes with a 1-3-0 record in their past four and Carolina going 1-4-0 in their past five. With both needing their first win in nearly a week the quest for control would determine on how the first few minutes went against the Eastern Conference teams.

Carolina got the early edge in the game gaining a power that that they didn’t waste much of. Justin Faulk took a shot that was blocked by Howard but a second chance came to Lindholm who scored his 13^th. During the play, Detroit was called for another penalty giving the Hurricanes time once more a man up. Although they didn’t convert on the second man advantage, they increased the shots at Howard nothing eight by the ten-minute mark of the period.

The Red Wings were stuck with two as they didn’t get the best start coach Jeff Blashill wanted from them. Detroit notched their third shot at Ward but not no potential scoring chance from it as the netminder made the pad stop. They got three more but it didn’t help them even the score as time fell off the clock and the Hurricanes remaining in control of the period. A scary moment occurred with Frans Nielsen falling on his neck after colliding with Josh Jooris who made sure he was all right. While it didn’t bring Detroit a power play, they got one with 4:29 left on Haydn Fleury holding Anthony Mantha.

The offensive unit did work to score one for the Red Wings giving Tomas Tatar a far end centering drive giving him his 12^th of the season. “I just tried putting into the net and I was fortunate to put it in,” Tatar said during the first intermission. “When you’re taking a one timer you want to put it on one side of the net and hope that it will go in.” Tying the game helped Detroit get more from the offense during even strength and get into a pace ending the first period strong. They were outshot 13-9 with Howard also building strength stopping Carolina on six scoring chances.

The second period was very slow for the teams as they returned to the ice. Through the first ten minutes of play, the Red Wings had two shots on goal against Ward while Carolina had only one to show. The game started to pick up but as five minutes elapsed, it wasn’t enough to make a difference to the score. When the period came to a close, Detroit had six but were still outshot with Carolina combining eight through twenty minutes.

The third was becoming a fight for the go-ahead goal as it would determine who was going to come out a winner on the night. Lindholm was responsible getting the Hurricanes ahead as they did work on the power play to give the forward his second of the night. The goal at 6:54 continued to hold as they built upon that a stance that kept the heat on Howard. It limited the number of chances that Detroit got which was becoming a problem with four minutes in regulation.

Martin Frk nearly had the game tied on a rifled shot that went off the post to Ward’s right. A second try that ended with Niklas Kronwall fell apart as gaining the opportunity for a second chance was killed off. Carolina rallied with a play that pressured Howard who had very little coverage in front of him. After some close chances, Justin Williams got a second try at scoring to do so with the puck going off the Detroit netminder scoring his eighth that sealed the victory for the Hurricanes to skate off victorious.

While they avoided extending their woes, the Red Wings would try to overcome losing their third straight meeting against the New Jersey Devils on Monday.