By Chris Oddo | Thursday June 1, 2017
Elina Svitolina battled back from a set down to keep her title hopes alive in Paris.
Photo Source: Adam Pretty/Getty
Ugly win, pretty draw. That has to be the mindset of No.6-seeded Elina Svitolina after her Day 5 victory over the always tricky Tsvetana Pironkova. Svitolina dropped the opener but confidently roared back to take control of the Bulgarian, 3-6, 6-3, 6-2, to book a third-round encounter with Poland’s Magda Linette.
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Linette reached the third round of a major for the first time with a 6-0, 7-5 win over No.29-seeded Ana Konjuh of Croatia.
Svitolina really took the game away from Pironkova in the final two sets, and limited the World No.77 to just for winners in the decider. There were 12 breaks of serve in the match, which was dominated by the returner throughout.
But the big takeaway from the match was Svitolina’s confidence in her ability to wiggle out of a tight situation against an opponent with a propensity to pull big upsets.
Pironkova has won four times against Top 10 players at majors, and she knocked off Agnieszka Radwanska en route to the quarterfinals last year at Roland Garros.
Svitolina improves to 33-6 on the year and 11-4 lifetime at Roland Garros. She reached the second week in Paris last year before falling to Serena Williams in the round of 16.