The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
No. 10 Svitolina marches past lucky loser Larsson
NEW HAVEN >> Elina Svitolina became the first Ukranian women’s tennis player to defeat the No. 1 ranked player in the world when she toppled Serena Williams at the Rio Olympics. The 21-year old, however, was disheartened afterwards when she failed to win a medal.
“Yeah, it was a great win,” Svitolina said. “But for me, I didn’t win a medal so it was quite disappointing that I finished that way after beating her.”
It’s one of the reasons why she hasn’t talked about Williams this week in New Haven. For Svitolina, beating Serena “is just another step in the right direction.”
You can add reaching the Connecticut Open championship as another step in Svitolina’s goal of someday winning Grand Slam titles.
Svitolina, seeded No. 10, advanced to Saturday’s final with a 6-4, 6-2 win over Sweden’s Johanna Larsson Friday afternoon at the Connecticut Tennis Center. She will face top-seeded Algnieszka Radwanska.
Svitolina is 4-0 in WTA singles finals, including a win over Canadian Eugenie Bouchard last February at the 2016 Malaysian Open in Kuala Lumpur. She is the second youngest 2016 tour winner behind Madison Keys. But Saturday’s championship match is her first appearance in a Premier level final.
“Yeah, it’s a special one,” said Svitolina, who is ranked No. 23 in the world. “I’m looking forward to this challenge. I think I need to play my game. I need to be calm with my plan. I’m going to sit down with my coaches and go from there.”
Svitolina’s coach is Iain Hughes. Former player Justine Henin, a seven-time Grand Slam winner who won New Haven’s Pilot Pen tournament in 2006, came on board last February.
“It’s great to have her by my side,” Svitolina added. “It works well with my coach and her. We are trying to change small things, of course, the bigger picture. Just need some time to adjust my game and to be consistent against top players because obviously, yeah, in international events, and during this week you can see I’m playing well, I have these opportunities.”
Larsson was bidding to become the first lucky loser to reach a WTA singles final since Coco Vandeweghe at Stanford in 2012.
“You know, as I got in as a lucky loser, it was like a second chance,” Larsson said. “I played really well against Timea (Bacsinszky) to start with. After that, it just kept going. It was a good match today and a good week.”
Larsson fought off three set points against Svitolina to pull within 5-4. She was also able to rally in the next game and was a break point away from tying it at 5. Svitolina, however, notched the next three points, including the set point on Larsson’s unforced error.
“Today I was maybe a little bit more tired than my opponent,” Larsson said. “I think maybe I had one or two chances, especially in the first set with a breakpoint back to five all, but didn’t make that. If you don’t, it kind of slips away.”
Svitolina, who is seeded No. 22 at next week’s U.S. Open, trailed 2-1 in the second set before taking control of the match with an impressive run of 10 straight points.
“She’s a great player,” Larsson added. “It’s the first time I played her ever. It was tough for me. I want to use the spin, to get a grip on the ball seeing as she’s playing so flat and low all the time. I think she definitely has a good chance for the final tomorrow.”