Elina Svitolina drew on all her fighting qualities to overcome World No.89 Varvara Gracheva in a tricky first-round encounter at the 2020 French Open.
The Ukrainian, 26, found form during an encouraging run to the title in Strasbourg last week. But she struggled to hit winners against the Russian, who seemed determined to make life as difficult as possible for her.
“It was not easy,” Svitolina said in her on-court interview. “I was leading in the first set and then Varvara really stepped up her game. She hit the ball much better and made me work hard for it.”
The Ukrainian continued, “I had to work really hard to be where I am now mentally. Every match and every tournament is a battle first of all with myself. It’s important for me to stay focused and keep my mind in the right place.”
Gracheva drags Svitolina into baseline battle
Elina Svitolina started the match superbly. She manoeuvred Gracheva around the court expertly and hit winners into the open spaces as she established a 4-1 lead.
Unfortunately for the Ukrainian, the Russian soon figured out what she needed to do to get back into the match. She reduced her error count and began to lengthen the rallies. This strategy exposed Svitolina’s lack of power and made it a much more even contest.
Gracheva’s change of tactics worked immediately. She broke the World No.5 twice in a row and levelled the match at 4-4.
Although Svitolina was clearly frustrated by this development, she did not let it faze her. She traded four consecutive breaks with the Russian as they fought for control.
In the tie-break, the Ukrainian did everything right. She played aggressively without taking too many risks and drew a series of errors from Gracheva’s racket to win it 7-2.
World No.5 comes from behind to win second set
Gracheva made an excellent start to the second set. She pushed Svitolina back with powerful groundstrokes and opened up a 4-2 lead.
However, the Russian struggled to maintain such high standards. Consequently, the Ukrainian battled to a crucial hold in game seven, and then raised her game to break Gracheva twice in a row and claim the second set 6-4.
Unusually, Svitolina will now face a lower-ranked player than the Russian in the second round. Her opponent is Mexican qualifier and World No.172 Renata Zarazua, who comfortably beat teenage French wildcard Elsa Jacquemont 6-1 6-2.
Elsewhere at Roland Garros, 22nd seed Karolina Muchova surprisingly lost 6-2 6-4 to Christina McHale. And 28th seed Svetlana Kuznetsova was defeated 6-1 2-6 6-1 by fellow Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.
