It was a tough day at the office for Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina at the Monterrey Open after she overcame a stern test against Bulgarian qualifier Viktoriya Tomova in the second round.
The top seed battled on court for almost two-and-a-half hours before prevailing 7-6(3), 3-6, 6-2, to seal her place in the quarter-finals. Svitolina was tested by the world No.103 in each set with the opener seeing her have four set points whilst leading 5-4 but she failed to convert any of them. She went on to snatch the first set tiebreaker before dropping the second set. Then in the decider Svitolina bounced back from a 0-2 deficit by winning six games in a row.
“It was an extremely tough match today,” wtatennis.com quoted Svitolina as saying. “I think Viktoriya played a really good match, and I had to really fight back in the third set to bring back my best game and try to come back in the match. In the end, I managed to win six games in a row, so it’s a good effort for me.
“It was an extremely tough first set, second set didn’t go my way, and then the third set I was 0-2 down. I was not playing my best, but I was fighting, until the very end.”
Svitolina’s latest performance saw her win 54% of her first service points and break Tomova seven times. Monterrey is only the second tournament this season where she has managed to win back-to-back matches after the Australian Open where she reached the third round.
This week the 27-year-old has pledged to donate all of her prize money to the Ukrainian military and the humanitarian efforts taking place in the country following the Russian invasion. Svitolina has spoken out about how the conflict in her home country is having an effect on her.
“The Ukrainian flag [in the crowd] really helped me today to fight…I was really fighting until the end, and I found my game in the end,” she said.
Next up for Svitolina will be a clash with fifth seed Camila Osorio who defeated wildcard Marcela Zacarías in straight sets. In their only previous meeting, Svitolina lost to the Colombian at a tournament in Tenerife last year.
