Number 3 seed Elina Svitolina cruised past Belarusian qualifier Aliaksandra Sasnovich 6-2 6-1 after just 66 minutes in a one-sided WTA Premier final in Brisbane boosting her confidence ahead of this month’s Australian Open, which starts on 15th January.
Svitolina has clinched her her 10th career title and her first win in Brisbane after winning five events including three WTA Premier 5 tournaments in 2017 in Dubai, Rome and Toronto.
The Ukrainian player never faced a break point and dropped just four points behind her first serve in eight games.
Svitolina broke serve to race out to a 3-0 lead in the first set against a tired Sansovich, who won seven consecutive matches in nine days. She was the first qualifier in the Brisbane International history to reach the final in this tournament.
Sasnovich fought back from 0-3 and three break points to hold serve for 1-3 and 2-4.
Svitolina got an early break to open up a 2-0 lead in the second set. Sasnovich, who fought back from one set down in her four matches played in this tournament including three in the main draw, hit her first ace on the match point to avoid the bagel at 0-5, but Svitolina wrapped up the match in the next game with an unreturnable serve.
Svitolina hit a total of 23 winners to just 15 unforced errors, including 10 aces and won 86 percent of her first-serve points. Sasnovich hit eight winners in the first set, but made a total of 25 unforced errors.
Svitolina beat former world number 1 Karolina Pliskova in yesterday’s semifinal. The triumph in the Quuensland tournament secures Svitolina the number 4 seed at the Australian Open. She will start the first Grand Slam tournament as a major contender for the title.
“It was a tough off-season. To start with a trophy is always very special. There is not only on serve that I am working on. There are lots of things. To be a consistent player, you have to work on everything and to be really confident with all the parts of your game. Of course, the serve is one of them because you can get free points off that. It was very important to use what I was working on during the off-season, and it was working. One match at a time. I was improving in some parts. I was playing better and better and serve worked really good during this week”, said Svitolina.
Sasnovich was very disappointed during her post-match interview.
“I am sorry for my play today. It was tough. Elina was playing very good, but I can play much better. Of course I was very tired but I tried not to think about it too much. I just tried to relax a little. Everyone understands that it’s a lot of matches. The body is tired, but I try not to think about it.
