BACK IN FORM
of tennis.”
Elina breezed past her Ukraine compatriot 6-2, 6-2 in just 59 minutes, leaving the 15-year-old sobbing on her mum’s shoulder, but Marta wasn’t down for long.
“How much you have to pay Svitolina to have one-hour lesson? I got it for free,” she told reporters.
“I had the chances, but because I thought, like, she is incredible, she’s a god, I cannot do anything against her, that’s the problem.”
Elina said she had actually been a pretty pricey tutor, with the difference between winning and losing in the third round a cool US$97,500 (RM383,000).
“It was expensive, because we play for prize money,” she said with a smile, adding that there were better teachers.
“I’m not good with these kind of things because I don’t want to seem like a wise ass.
“I’m not sure she really needs advice from me. She has her mum, she has coaches who do an amazing job. So, you know, I’ve nothing really to add,” said the World No 4.
Elina next plays another qualifier — big-serving Czech Denisa Allertova who romped past Magda Linette 6-1, 6-4 — for a place in the quarter-finals tomorrow.
In a tournament shorn of seeds, 81st ranked Petra Martic also swept into the round of 16, celebrating her 27th birthday by holding off a gritty three-set challenge from Thai qualifier Luksika Kumkhum.
Her reward is a match against Belgium’s Elise Mertens, who beat struggling Alize Cornet of France 7-5, 6-4.
Alize was among players wilting in the heat, with a doctor taking her blood pressure early in the second set as she succumbed to the baking weather.
Kyle Edmund joined Nadal in the round of 16, overcoming the elements in a fighting five-set win over Nikoloz Basilashvili and will next play Italian Andreas Seppi who won a battle of the veterans against Croatia’s 38-year-old Ivo Karlovic.
Spanish 10th seed Pablo Carreno Busta, a semi-finalist at last year’s US Open, also marched on, beating Luxembourg’s Gilles Muller 7-6 (7-4), 4-6, 7-5, 7-5. Agencies