Svitolina wins over Doi
Elina Svitolina performed a strong recovery after the first set to fire back and steal the win from Misaki Doi Tuesday. The 17th seeded Ukrainian defeated the unranked Japanese star 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 on Court 7 at the Wimbledon Championships.
This is the second time these two have met and the first in exactly a year where they both battled at Wimbledon. The Japanese left-hander took the opening round over the Ukrainian where she held control in the first set before nearly blanking the competition in the second. Svitolina fought against Heather Watson at Eastbourne before she lost in the third set logging one game on grass.
Doi played at Birmingham winning a pair of qualifiers before losing in the second round to Christina McHale. Though she has had more time on grass, the power of Svitolina will be a power she will need to hold off.
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The Ukrainian opened up the lead with a 2-0 lead after winning on a nine-minute deuce draw against Doi. It then changed for Svitolina who went on to allow the Japanese player to climb back in contention. Svitolina regained the lead just briefly before her set lead disappeared. Doi began a four game winning streak that began with her winning on a game point in the sixth.
She kept the heat on where she won a triple break point before closing out the set with a deuce draw victory ending the set in 36 minutes. Doi won 88 percent of her total service points as her strength was holding her above water while the Ukrainian struggled.
Doi opened the service in the second set where she won on point before taking the second on a triple break point. Svitolina had enough of her opponent’s six game winning streak and ended it with a hard fought effort on deuce. She fought through the struggles on a second draw to even the set at two.
Doi earned one more victory before she watched Svitolina make her way back. She tied things up after a third win on deuce in the set before her seventh game win returned control in her favor. Playing for the set in Game Nine, Svitolina held control on a double set point to even the match setting up a third to be played.
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In a surprise to Doi in the third set, Svitolina took control of pace on court growing a three game lead that kept her sixth game winning streak alive and well. It didn’t look to have an end as she opened to a 4-0 lead breaking ahead on deuce to come within a pair of a huge comeback. Doi ended the eight game streak of Svitolina as she tried to make a statement of hanging on in the set.
She took another win before Svitolina ended her fun winning Game Seven putting her in place of winning the match. She took the victory with ease winning on a love service. It took 1 hour and 41 minutes for the Ukrainian to make her march back from the opening set serving 61 percent and winning 60 percent of points. Her return was much stronger as she fired back 80 percent of them that helped her regain the ground lost on Doi earlier. With the victory in the record books and Svitolina into the second round, her efforts will go against Casey Dellacqua Thursday.