Svitolina saves her best for last
Ukrainian now 5-0 in championship finals following Rogers Cup title
Considering her record in finals this year, it would be wise for young tennis players to pay attention to Elina Svitolina’s mental strategy.
“I was going into the match and I was thinking, ‘OK, this is not the final. Just try to think this is a quarter-final because we could play with Caroline (Wozniacki) in a quarter-final or semifinal,’ ” Svitolina said Sunday.
“The final is always big pressure because you think that you are very close to a (tournament) win, but you are very far at the same time. That’s why it’s important to have the right mindset for the final. Of course, there will be pressure, but just try to do everything it takes to not think about it.”
Clearly, the Ukrainian’s mindset is working. The 22-year-old No. 5 seed improved to 5-0 in championship matches this year with a convincing 6-4, 6-0 win over No. 6 Wozniacki of Denmark in the Rogers Cup title tilt at the Aviva Centre at York University.
Wozniacki leads the WTA Tour with 46 match wins this year — two more than her championship opponent. But the 27-year-old Dane is 0-6 in finals, almost the direct opposite to the mark of the tour leader in championship victories.
In a battle of players with similar grind-it-out, go-for-every-ball styles, it was Svitolina making far fewer mistakes with serve, while capitalizing on the second serve of Wozniacki. Long rallies were the norm — and Svitolina held steady at the big moments.
The frustration of Wozniacki showed when she smashed her racket on the net after putting a volley wide while charging in on serve during the first set. On the next point, Wozniacki double faulted, resulting in the first of five consecutive breaks for Svitolina to end the match.
All told, Svitolina broke her opponent in six of eight chances, finishing her tournament with an astounding 71.1 per cent of return games won.
“I try to fight,” said Svitolina, who became the first player to win three Premier 5 titles (the level beneath Grand Slams) in a single season since the format was introduced in 2009. “Of course, there’s a lot of girls on tour who are really fighting until the end, like (Simona) Halep and (Garbine) Muguruza. They are all fighters.
“I always try to play until the last point and never really put myself down in a mood. I always try to be more positive and play until the last point is played. So maybe this is my (greatest) strength.”
Svitolina does not have the resume as some of the other top-10 players in the world, with her deepest runs at a Grand Slam being quarter-finals at the French Open in 2015 and 2017. But at such a young age, with her best results coming this year and no dominant player on the women’s tour these days, it wouldn’t be surprising if a Grand Slam breakthrough looms — perhaps as soon as in a couple of weeks at the U.S. Open in New York.
Svitolina is now 10-3 against top10 opponents this year, including wins this week against No. 9 Venus Williams, No. 4 Muguruza, No. 2 Halep and Wozniacki.
After Wozniacki sailed a forehand long on match point, Svitolina jumped up and down several times while pumping her fists, capping a gruelling two-day stretch for the winner. She returned to court for her quarter-final on Saturday morning down a set to Muguruza after rain suspended play on Friday night. Svitolina proceeded to win six straight sets Saturday and Sunday to take the winner’s cheque of $501,975.
Svitolina said she slept only 3-4 hours the night before the final after drinking plenty of coffee to stay energized during a long Saturday.
“I was very, very tired after the first game of the first set,” said Svitolina, who was planning to go for a massage after her match to wind down. “I knew that I need to give everything because Caroline doesn’t miss much. You have to work really hard to get unforced errors from her. I just decided I’m going to play every ball and leave everything on court. And that’s why, emotionally, I was relieved when I won the first set and was playing better and better in the second … I really couldn’t believe that it all finished and I’m holding the trophy.”
Now she’ll enter the U.S. Open as one of the favourites. But Svitolina doesn’t pay much attention to outside expectations.
“Of course, it’s a good sign for me that I’m playing well,” she said. “I’m competing good, my mental part is strong, I’m playing good tennis. It’s a good sign for preparation for the U.S. Open. I’ll just try to keep it up and do my best to prepare and be ready for the U.S. Open.”