IMAGE: Elina Svitolina had sufficient high quality and expertise to get previous her aggressive 24-year-old opponent. {Photograph}: Auckland Open /X
Elina Svitolina was examined by China’s Wang Xinyu within the Auckland Open closing on Sunday however got here via 6-3, 7-6(6) to kick off her new season along with her nineteenth WTA title.
The 31-year-old baseliner was not fairly firing on all cylinders as she continued her preparations for the Australian Open after a prolonged break, however had sufficient high quality and expertise to get previous her aggressive 24-year-old opponent.
“It feels wonderful to win one other title particularly after a not nice finish to final season,” mentioned Ukrainian Svitolina, 3 times a quarter-finalist at Melbourne Park.
“It was good to get powerful matches right here this week and win the ultimate, hopefully we are able to construct on that for the remainder of the season.”
Wang, taking part in her second WTA closing however nonetheless in search of her first title, troubled Svitolina early on with some deep groundstrokes and well-executed drop pictures however too usually allowed the world quantity 13 off the hook with some easy errors.
Watched from the sidelines by husband Gael Monfils, Svitolina broke for 4-2 on the again of a Wang error and served out with an ace to seal the opening set three video games later.
World quantity 57 Wang had three break factors within the fourth sport of the second stanza however high seed Svitolina discovered her first serve when it mattered to get out of bother.
Breaking Wang once more proved a more durable job and the match was determined in a tiebreaker, Svitolina digging deep to rally from 3-0 down and make some amends for dropping to Coco Gauff within the 2024 closing.
