By Richard Pagliaro | Sunday, May 27, 2018
Elina Svitolina knows all about the power of red-clay storms.
In today's Roland Garros return, Svitolina saved a set point and unleashed a winning whirlwind.
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Svitolina stormed back from 1-5 down with an eight-game surge sparking a 7-5, 6-3 victory over Ajla Tomljanovic in her Roland Garros opener.
"It was not an easy start and I had to really wake up. I had to step up my game," Svitolina said afterward.
The fourth-seeded Svitolina scored her sixth straight win, raising her record to 26-6 on the season.
Continuing her quest for her first career Grand Slam title, Svitolina will face either 2010 champion Francesca Schiavone or 87th-ranked Viktoria Kuzmova in round two.
The two-time Rome champion denied set point when Tomljanovic initially served for the opening set at 5-2.
The 68th-ranked Aussie, who played free-flowing tennis for much of the first set, tightened up in the eighth game.
Tomljanovic committed three of her five double faults in the game, including a double fault on set point, and tossed in a forehand error as Svitolina broke back for 3-5.
The fourth-seeded Ukrainian broke again for 5-all and never looked back in the set. Svitolina turned a 1-5 deficit into a 7-5, 2-0 lead.
"Well, I was just trying to play my game and try to find a way to fight back," Svitolina told Tennis Channel's Jon Wertheim afterward. "In the end I had my chances and I took them. I'm happy I was able to win."
Playing more offense in the second set, Svitolina converted two of four break points and committed half as many unforced errors as Tomljanovic's 14 errors in closing out the second set.
The comeback comes a year after Svitolina squandered a 6-3, 5-1 lead to Simona Halep in the 2017 quarterfinals.
Halep denied a match point in the tie break roaring back to win 11 of the last 12 games stunning Svitolina, 3-6, 7-6 (6), 6-0, to surge into her second Roland Garros semifinal in the last three years.
Svitolina, who converted five of 11 break-point chances today, said she's tried to eliminate her 2017 collapse from her mind.
"It was one year ago," Svitolina said. "We played a few more matches since then. (It's) a different match, different tournament. I'm happy to be back happy to be winning."