Slick Svitolina surges with Italian Open title
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ELINA Svitolina surged to No. 1 in the season-long rankings race by winning the Italian Open yesterday with a 4-6, 7-5, 6-1 victory over Simona Halep.
It was a tour-best fourth title this year for Svitolina and the most prestigious trophy of her career so far. The 22-year-old Ukrainian also leads the tour with 31 match wins this season, putting her among the favorites for the French Open, which starts next Sunday.
“Every day I’m just trying to work on my mental part, my physical, my tennis,” Svitolina said. “Everything just came together and I’m very happy that it’s happened in such a big tournament.”
The fourth-ranked Halep was in full control and serving for the first set at 5-2 when she rolled her right ankle while sliding over what appeared to be a small hole in the Foro Italico stadium court.
While Halep was able to eventually win the opening set, she required treatment to her ankle from a trainer twice and was late getting to shots as the match wore on.
“Sorry guys for third set,” Halep told the crowd. “It was a little tough for me to get through but Elina played great.”
Halep was playing in her second clay-court final in two weeks after winning the title in Madrid last Sunday.
Svitolina also required medical treatment from a trainer midway through the second set, for an apparent problem with her left leg.
“Hopefully we’ll recover, me and Simona, because we’re struggling a bit physically,” Svitolina said.
During the post-match presentation, Svitolina dropped the cover of the silver trophy on to the red claycourt, prompting her to say, “Oops.”
The first two sets featured long, nervous baseline rallies in which both players waited for their opponent to commit errors.
“It was very tough first two sets and I’m really happy that it’s all finished,” Svitolina said.
Svitolina advanced to her maiden Rome final on Saturday when Spanish semifinal opponent Garbine Muguruza, the French Open champion, retired injured as she trailed 1-4 to the big-hitting Ukrainian. Muguruza now faces an uphill task to be ready for Roland Garros.
But Svitolina, who ousted Czech second seed Karolina Pliskova in the quarter-finals, showed she was fully deserving of her spot, overcoming Halep, the sixth-seeded Romanian.
In the men’s final, four-time champion Novak Djokovic of Serbia was facing 20-year-old German Alexander Zverev.
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