WIMBLEDON: A mixture of luck and heartbreak was what sent Elina Svitolina into the third round of the Wimbledon Championships.
Taking on Margarita Gasparyan, the eighth seed lost destined to be exiting the tournament. Trailing 5-7, 4-5, she saved a match point to draw level in the second set. Then tragedy occurred on Court number three for her opponent. Serving at 5-5, Gasparyan collapsed on the floor with pain in her leg. Suspected to have been caused by cramp. Then after being on the verge of a shock victory, she was forced to retire in tears during the following game.
“I was a little bit shocked.” Said Svitolina. “It’s never nice to get this when someone is injured like that. It puts you a little bit off.’
“I mean, in the end, we’d expect that she would go and play. It happened that way and really unfortunate for her.”
Placed in a tough situation, Svitolina showed true sportsmanship. Trying to aid her opponent by giving her water to help with the cramping. Not that it made either of those players feel better about the twist in their encounter.
“I gave her some water because I know when there are cramps you need to drink lots of water. Your muscles are contracting. So it’s important just to drink lots of fluids.” The Ukranian explains.
“That’s why I gave her some water because no one really did anything. We were trying to help it’s tough to react straightaway.”
Gasparyan, who made her WTA debut back in 2010, is no stranger to injury. In 2016 she rose to a ranking high of 41st before multiple knee surgeries sidelined her for almost one-and-a-half years. This time last year she was ranked outside the top 500 and didn’t break back into the top 100 until November.
Despite those misfortunes, Svitolina praised the 24-year-old and her potential. Earlier this year, she lost to the Russian in three sets at the Birmingham International.
“I know that she was struggling a little bit with injuries, but I think her ranking should be much higher than it actually is. She actually strikes the ball really clean. Her serve is big.”
The eighth seed is now through to the third round of Wimbledon for only the second time in her career and first since 2017. She will next play Greece’s Maria Sakkari in what will be their first meeting on the tour. Sakkari eased her way past Czech qualifier Marie Bouzková 6-4, 6-1.
“I know she improved massively for the past years, and she can really play great matches and great tournaments,” Svitolina commented about her upcoming opponent.
“So it’s gonna be very important for me to play my best game, to just be ready physically for another battle.”
Svitolina has now won seven main draw matches at Wimbledon so far in her career.
