By Richard Pagliaro | Saturday, May 19, 2018
Reigning Rome champion Elina Svitolina dissected Anett Kontaveit, 6-4, 6-3, rolling into her 14th career final in the Eternal City.
Photo credit: Internazionali BNL d'Italia Facebook
It was moving day in Rome and Elina Svitolina packed precision to sustain procession.
The reigning Rome champion dissected Anett Kontaveit, 6-4, 6-3, rolling into her 14th career final at the Internazionali BNL D'Italia.
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The 23-year-old Svitolina extended her Rome winning streak to nine matches. She will play either world No. 1 Simona Halep or three-time Rome champion Maria Sharapova in tomorrow's final.
Svitolina, who owns an outstanding 11-2 career finals record, is aiming for the third title defense of her career and second of the season after successfully defending Dubai in February.
"Definitely, (I felt) a little bit of pressure at the beginning of the tournament," Svitolina said afterward. "I tried to accept it. I'm enjoying being on court. And hopefully I can bring my best game tomorrow."
Today's semifinal was predicated on movement, accuracy and Svitolina's skill stretching the court and forcing the first-time Rome semifinalist to make one more shot.
Playing cleaner tennis throughout the 74-minute triumph, Svitolina hit 18 winners against 13 unforced errors, seven fewer errors than Kontaveit.
Varying the angles of her return and sometimes driving returns deep down the middle, Svitolina converted four of five break point raising her record to 24-6 on the season.
The fourth-seeded Svitolina burst out of the blocks with authority breaking at love to open. Svitolina burst through eight of the first 10 points.
Settling in after a sputtering start, Kontaveit answered with a three game love.
The 26th-ranked Estonian drove a backhand down the line breaking back in the fourth game, then held at 15 confirming the break for 3-2.
Countering with angles on the run, Svitolina carved out a backhand volley for break point in the seventh game. Kontaveit's backhand down the line is a weapon, but she missed the mark with her two-hander as Svitolina broke for 4-3.
The key sequence of the set came in the eighth game as Svitolina saved two break points. Kontaveit was up quickly to a short ball and had the Ukrainian on the defense, but Svitolina held her ground and shrewdly spun a clean backhand lob winner holding for 5-3 with a hearty fist pump.
Serving for the set, Svitolina pulled off the delayed serve-and-volley knocking off a high forehand to snatch the 39-minute opener.
It was the first set Kontaveit dropped in the tournament and an encouraging sign for Svitolina, who was 18-2 when winning the opening set this season.
Kontaveit knocked off three Grand Slam champions—Svetlana Kuznetsova, Venus Williams and Caroline Wozniacki—en route to the semifinal, but couldn't solve Svitolina's unsettling counter-punching.
Drawing a deep forehand, Svitolina converted her third break in as many chances for a 2-1 second set lead.
Speed around the court distinguished Svitolina in this semifinal. Quick off the mark, she continued to counter the Estonian's deep drives backing up the break in the fourth game.
A double fault gave Svitolina triple match point.
Driving a deep forehand she sealed an emphatic sweep in 74 minutes.