Elina Svitolina overcame defending champion and number 2 seed Karolina Pliskova in straight sets 7-5 7-5 after 1 hour and 39 minutes to reach the final of the Premier-level final in Brisbane. The Ukrainian player took a re-match against Pliskova, who beat her 6-2 6-4 in the semifinal of last year’s edition of the Queensland tournament. Svitolina reached the Brisbane final for the first time of her career after losing twice in the semifinal stage at this tournament.
Pliskova led 5-1 in her previous head-to-head matches against Svitolina, including a win in the semifinal at last year’s edition in Brisbane. Svitolina scored her only win against her Czech rival in last year’s edition of the Rome Internazionali d’Italia.
Pliskova went up a double break to open up a 4-0 lead. Svitolina got both breaks back to win the next four games for 4-4 and got the crucial break in the 11th game.
Pliskova fought back from 2-5 down and saved a match point at 5-4 down. Svitolina broke again to draw level to 5-5. Pliskova saved two more match points, but Svitolina converted her third chance, as the Czech player fired a backhand long.
Svitolina won nine of her twelve finals in her career. She will be bidding to win her fourth Premier-level final after Dubai, Rome and Toronto. She was the player who won more titles in 2017.
“I played a lot of finals already at this particular stage of the tournaments. I have the experience, but then I need to be there tomorrow to use it and to give myself a chance to play well. It was very intense. The match was very tough. Karolina is playing very well. The defending champion is always extremely tough to play against. At 0-4 down I was playing very bad with lots of mistakes. I said to myself that I had to try to take time and just go for your shots”, said Svitolina.
Svitolina will take on qualifier Aliaksandra Sasnovich from Belarus, who edged past number 7 Anastasija Sevastova 7-6 (7-3) 6-4 to reach her first final since September 2015. Sasnovich played in her first Premier-level semifinal and her third in a WTA event.
Sasnovich came back from one set down in her last qualifying match and in her three main draw matches against Kristina Mladenovic, Anett Kontaveit and Alizé Cornet.
Sasnovich converted on the first break point of the match in the opening game. Sevastova broke straight back and held at love to draw level. Both players went on serve en route to the tie-break. Sasnovich hit two backhand winners to win the tie-break.
In the second set Sasnovich fended off two break point chances to hold serve to 3-3. She got the decisive break in the ninth game at deuce to score her second win over a seeded player this week.
“At the beginning of the tournament I couldn’t even imagine that I will be in the final. It’s good for me and good for the country and for the people who support me. Without them it was not possible. It’s nice to be the first qualifier in the final. It has motivated me.”
