Elina Svitolina crashed out of US Open 2018 at the fourth round stage with a 6-3 1-6 6-0 loss to Anastasija Sevastova.
It is a result that continues a frustrating sequence of premature defeats in Grand Slams for the Ukrainian, who has won five WTA premier titles but does not seem to be able to produce her best on the biggest stages of all.
Sevastova made the better start to the match. She earned a break in the opening game and bamboozled Svitolina with her varieties during the first set.
This enabled the Latvian to control the opening exchanges, and she won her first two service games to love to open up a 3-1 lead.
Svitolina became more competitive in the latter part of the set, but she could not find enough rhythm and Sevastova eventually clinched it 6-3.
Svitolina fights back
The second set was completely different. The Ukrainian came out full of intent and started to dictate proceedings.
She had clearly started to anticipate the Latvian’s actions by this point and this enabled her to get into position to hit her shots much earlier.
Consequently, Svitolina raced into a 3-1 lead in what was looking like a mirror image of the opening set. However, it soon became more convincing for the World No.7 as Sevastova made a string of errors to hand her another break.
The Ukrainian held serve comfortably and, during the game, she hit a crunching cross-court forehand winner that illustrated her new-found confidence.
At 1-5 behind, Sevastova seemed to find the pressure too much to handle and she dropped her serve for a third time to surrender the set.
Sevastova turns the tables again
Just when it seemed like the higher seed might have gained control of the match, the pendulum swung back towards the Latvian.
Sevastova stepped in towards the baseline, cut out the errors and expertly manoeuvred Svitolina around the court.
The 19th seed hit 9 winners as she charged into a 4-0 lead in the decider, and suddenly it was the Ukrainian who could not cope with her opponent.
Astonishingly, things then went from bad to much, much worse for Svitolina as Sevastova broke her serve for the third time in succession to go 5-0 up.
The Latvian did not prolong the 7th seed’s agony. She wrapped up victory by holding her serve to love to book her place in the US Open quarter-finals for the third consecutive year.
Pliskova glides through
Elsewhere in the draw, Karolina Pliskova ensured there would be at least one player from the world’s top ten competing in the quarter-finals with a 6-4 6-4 win over Ashleigh Barty.
Both sets of the match were close and the Czech saved a remarkable eight break points to ensure she held serve throughout.
And Barty will no doubt rue her inability to break, as Pliskova took both her opportunities and that proved to be enough to achieve victory in straight sets.
“She had a lot of break points, so it could have gone either way,” Pliskova reflected in her press conference. “I was just able to play much better on the big points.”