Strasbourg. Svitolina beat Sobolenko on the way to the final

Ukraine’s first racket Elina Svitolina (No. 5 WTA) continues to win the international series tournament in Strasbourg.

In the 1/2 final match, the Ukrainian defeated Arina Sobolenko of Belarus (No. 12 WTA).

Strasbourg. Semifinal
Elina Svitolina (Ukraine) – Arina Sobolenko (Belarus) – 6: 3, 4: 6, 6: 4

For Sobolenko, the match against Svitolina was the second of the day. Yesterday her match against the Czech Katerina Sinyakova was postponed due to rain and Arina on Friday played the first set lost on Thursday with renewed vigor.

Already in the second game of his second match of the day, the game had to be suspended for the same reason. Fortunately, it rained little and after 45 minutes the girls returned to the court.

And this helped the representative of Belarus for a while. He was losing 0: 2, but played faster and tied the score. Elina had to work hard to show her advantage again. The Ukrainian tried to play with a more aggressive style typical of this year, which we have not seen so often on clay before. It turned out, as in previous matches, with variable success, but the opponent was less stable and the first set stayed with us.

In the second game, the pattern of play changed slightly, the girls alternately tried to somehow grab the opponent’s serve, but neither of them were successful. But this time Sobolenko played much cleaner, the pressure from Svitolina was clearly not enough. It was Arina who made the only break in the game. And although the score for the set was the same, the prospects for the Ukrainian in such a match were much higher.

At the start of the third game, Svitolina was ahead 3: 0, many already believed in her easy victory. Maybe even her. Elina began to play passively and was destroyed in three quick matches. I had to play in a more offensive way, minimizing the opponent’s options to complete the attacks. With the score 4: 3, Elina converted a concealed double ball, but was unable to serve. Fortunately for her, Sobolenko made 3 doubles in the next game, one of which was in matchball.

Note that this was Elina’s highest rated win in 2020.

In the final, Svitolina will play Elena Rybakina from Kazakhstan (No. 18 WTA). The Ukrainian will fight for the second trophy of the season; Before the quarantine began, she won the tournament in Monterrey.

We will remember that last year at this stage Sobolenko lost to the Ukrainian Dayana Yastremskaya, who later won the title.