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Elina Svitolina showed signs of struggle at the start of the match, but earned an early pass into the quarter-finals of the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix at Stuttgart on Thursday. Marketa Vondrousova got overheated on the court in the third set before retiring in a 6-2, 1-6, 2-3 score on Centre Court at the Porsche Arena.
The two met back in February when the Ukrainian took down the Czech in straight sets in Doha during the second round. With the situation being similar, the world number four hoped to get a good footing into the clay court season in what was her first appearance at the tournament.
Svitolina hasn’t played since March 28th, taking plenty of time to rest before going heavily into the next few tournaments prior to Roland Garros. Vondrousova stood on a four-match winning streak, looking for another chance at getting her first career top-ten upset.
She came out firing big to make things difficult for Svitolina, landing five winners through two games including her own service hold. It took time for the world number four to capture her own service hold playing through a few breaks.
They carried on with Vondrousova taking a game point on winning her service game before breaking Svitolina in the sixth. The Czech gained further ground on the third seed, pulling together another service hold with a clear threat of taking the set.
Svitolina's coach Andrew Bettles came out during the break to help try and get Svitolina back on track but it was not meant to be as Vondrousova closed things out with two set points. It was a 27-minute run for the Czech teen who had 11 winners despite committing three double faults. Svitolina clearly had not found her gear putting very little offense in the set with the need for more in the second set.
It was exactly what came to be as she battled hard against Vondrousova’s serve, forcing deuce where it took three break attempts to get it done. She began voicing her aggression in her strokes that earned her a second win holding serve. Double faults were becoming a major problem for the 18-year-old as she dropped another game, giving Svitolina some much-needed breathing room.
A problem in the fourth for Svitolina ended her rush to improvement, slipping up on serve to get Vondrousova into the set. The same could be said for the 18-year-old as she had some weird moments during points that gave the Ukrainian an easy break. It was the last one she would get in the set as Svitolina was on a mission holding for a 5-1 lead. With a final attack against Vondrousova’s serve, she slammed the ball well to achieve two set points to send them into a third set.
Vondrousova took the early break that frustrated Svitolina but the latter made up for it breaking the teen with a well-rounded defense. They remained deadlocked through four games with Svitolina leading the way for them each time. After the fifth game, while Bettles talked with Svitolina, the 18-year-old called the physical trainer and decided to call it quits, bringing an end to the clash that lasted for 1 hour and 16 minutes.
“It’s always tough to play an opponent who is a little bit injured and the clay court doesn’t help really with this kind of injury that she was carrying, so it’s always tough. So, hopefully, she can recover quickly and be ready for the next tournament,” Svitolina said about her opponent after the match.
“She was playing great tennis in the first. She played a couple of matches already and got a bit more used to it. I was just trying to find my game and maybe going a little too much so, hopefully I can go on the court and be ready for the next match.”
She will take on Caroline Garcia in Friday’s quarter-final which would no doubt be a big challenge as the world number seven continues to be on a hot streak and has a positive history against the 23-year-old Ukrainian.
