Svitolina Battles Past Sakkari to reach Quarterfinals in Tokyo - UBITENNIS

Svitolina Battles Past Sakkari to reach Quarterfinals in Tokyo

Elina Svitolina is into her second consecutive quarter-final at the Olympics after beating Maria Sakkari.

By Elias Laradi
3 Min Read

The number four seed needed three sets and over two hours on court to get the win against her Greek opponent.

Elina Svitolina is back into the quarterfinals of the Olympic Tennis event ,after reaching the quarterfinals back in 2016 in Rio, after beating the number 14 seed Maria Sakkari of Greece in three sets 5-7, 6-3, 6-4 firing 30 winners and serving 10 aces in the win.

The world number 19 put pressure on the Ukrainian right from the start earning a chance to break but it was saved immediately with a big serve from the world number six.

The number four seed had two chances to break the very next game and on the second opportunity broke to take an early 2-0 lead. It stayed on serve until 4-2 when the Greek stormed back and on her second break point of the game broke back to go back on serve.

The next three games were breaks of serve before the number 14 seed would convert on her third set point to serve out the first set.

The first three games of the second set went on serve and at 2-1 the Ukrainian had two more breakpoints and she got the break on her second breakpoint opportunity and it was enough for her to win the second set and send it to a deciding third set.

Much like the second set at 1-1 in the third the world number 19 struggled with her serve and some untimely double faults gave her Ukrainian opponent a chance to break and on her third chance she broke to take an early 2-1 lead.

It stayed on serve until 3-2 when the number 14 seed earned a breakpoint and this time would convert once again to put the match back on serve but was broken once again the very next game.

Svitolina managed to hold serve and at 5-4 served out the match to book her spot in the quarterfinals where she will either face Camila Giorgi in the last eight after the Italian beat Karolina Pliskova in straight sets.

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