Ukrainian tennis star Elina Svitolina on April 27 lost in the third round of the Porsche Grand Prix in Stuttgart to French Caroline Garcia. This is the third consecutive time that Garcia defeated Svitolina.
The match lasted for two hours and 16 minutes and ended with the score 7-6(4), 4-6, 2-6.
“If you don’t take your chances, your opponent is going to take them,” Svitolina said at the post-match press conference.
Svitolina, 23, ranks fourth in the Women’s Tennis Association ranking.
During the first set, Svitolina and Garcia appeared to be equal, although they had several chances to make the break. With a score of 4-3 Garcia broke the opponent’s serve and could win the set, but Svitolina returned to the game, winning 15-40. The set ended with a tiebreak, which Svitolina confidently took, ending at 7-6.
The second set Svitolina started with a break and led 3-0. But from that moment, Garcia took the lead in the match, taking her serve and evening the score to 3-3. The accurate first serve and strong backhand shots brought Garcia’s victory in the second set – her first-serve percentage was higher, 77 percent comparing to Svitolina’s 39 percent, and she hit 18 winners.
After earning a break, Garcia led 5-4. For about 13 minutes tennis player competed in the last game of the second set: Svitolina had six chances to break Garcia’s serve, but she did not manage to pressure her opponent. The set ended at 4-6 in Garcia’s favor.
The players started the last set with breaking each other’s service but Garcia still controlled the set. In the fifth game of the set, Svitolina had a triple break point and lost it.
Garcia won, taking 12 of the final 15 games of the match after losing 0-3 in the second set.
The statistics show that Svitolina made mistakes and lost some chances to score: the Ukrainian had 15 break points but won only two. Both players have an equal number of aces and double faults. Also, Garcia’s percentage of winners was higher, at 39 percent to 25 percent, while the Ukrainian had fewer unforced errors – 25 to 31.
Svitolina’s next tournament will be Mutua Madrid Open on May 7-13.
