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Elina Svitolina couldn't bring her A-game against former champion Garbine Muguruza at the French Open 2019 on Friday. The Spaniard was on a tear from her first serve to the last that allowed her a solid 6-3, 6-3 win on Philippe Chatrier Court on the grounds of Roland Garros.
The two met for the ninth time in their career and the second time this season. Svitolina’s comfort in Dubai allowed her to dominate the Spaniard in straight sets, allowing her three games in 15. It was her third consecutive win over Muguruza which is why there was a lot of pressure on the 2016 champion in this match. Back in 2012, the-then 18-year-old had defeated the young Ukrainian in straight sets during qualifications of this tournament. Much had improved between the two since then and with both performing well, the fight happening in the third round was expected to be fierce.
Svitolina started with unforced errors and a double fault that rattled her opening serve. Recovering on deuce wasn’t happening as Muguruza secured the break to roll into her service opener which was challenged as well. The Ukrainian was the first to reach break point before Muguruza forced deuce. The Spaniard was unable to get the AD point, leading to a successful break back for the 24-year-old.
They continued to break one another through six games before a final break of Svitolina allowed Muguruza the comfort of holding serve for the first time in the set. With that aspect working well for her, she rallied over Svitolina to win her fifth break at a point where the latter's serve was dormant on court. The first set was thus done and dusted in 45 minutes with the 11 unforced errors not helping the return side of her game at all.
Picking up from where she left, Muguruza launched an assault on Svitolina that gave her the opening game of the second set in just two minutes. Svitolina scored her first service hold of the match, drawing errors from the 19th seed. Muguruza answered back with a serve to love, giving a notion of the high level of power in the match. The ninth-seeded Ukrainian attempted to dig in and hold off the Spaniard on serve but she forced deuce and attained the AD point twice. The 24-year-old wouldn’t award her a third and locked down the game, keeping the score level.
The situation gave Svitolina a chance to consolidate the break and in the fifth, she achieved that goal. Getting the edge on Muguruza allowed her to gain a break point and take the lead. Muguruza then outfought Svitolina and played to deuce where she denied Svitolina another chance to hold, before gaining a break point and locking it down to even at three apiece. She consolidated her serve in the seventh to gain back the lead.
The World No. 19 got herself in position to serve for the match, having broken Svitolina in the ninth. Reaching two match points, the 25-year-old double-faulted but put the Ukrainian to rest when Svitolina smashed it right at the net. With another top ten seed out of the tournament, the former champion of the Slam will try to inch her way closer to a second title here but would face either Polona Hercog or 2018 finalist Sloane Stephens in her next round.
