Elina Svitolina continued her stellar run at the 2023 Wimbledon by snapping the winning streak of Sofia Kenin.
Kenin can be really proud of herself for putting together the type of performance she put together at Wimbledon. Arriving with some mixed results on the year to a surface which hasn't been the best for her, the American produced a really solid level to win three matches in the qualifiers booking the main draw.
The confidence gained from those matches certainly helped her move forward as she produced a pretty big upset over Coco Gauff, who was quite excited about the event being bullish on the way her own tennis was looking recently.
Kenin then won another match to keep it going but stumbled now against Svitolina who has been putting together strong performances as well. She recently admitted that she's never been as motivated as now and it's believable when you look at her recent results. The run at Roland Garros and now this one in London; she's playing great.
The first set was pretty close as it lasted over an hour and finished in the tiebreak. Both players opted for an aggressive approach that yielded one break on each side but no conclusion after 12 games of play. They ended up in a tiebreak that finished with Svitolina emerging on top, 7-3.
The set itself was an interesting one as Svitolina proved her amazing defensive skills against a very clean hitter like Kenin. The American had 14 winners but also 28 unforced errors, eight more than Svitolina had (20). The Ukranian also had only 2 winners less than Kenin which is a better ratio overall.
She also had 5 aces though her 1st serve percentage wasn't as good as that of Kenin. After failing to take the opening set, the American kind of fell apart. She is quite streaky and while her hitting was on a level below the previous days, much of that had to do with Svitolina just pushing her to the edge in most rallies.
The streaky nature came into effect in the second set particularly as her serve become a bit shaky and things unravelled after that. She had only 5 winners and 9 unforced errors, not as good of a mark as Svitolina's 11 and 7.
The final score was 7-6(3), 6-2 for the Ukranian who will face Victoria Azarenka in the next round of the event. A pretty solid 6 aces along with 23 winners and 27 unforced errors. The match against the Belarusian is one of the classics on the WTA Tour as the two met five times in the past, with Azarenka leading the H2H 5-0.
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