First game in 12 months, Svitolina lost to Putintseva in Charleston

Ukrainian tennis player Elina Svitolina After the decision, he returned to the field and played his first match last year.

The third oldest racket in the world lost at the start of the WTA 500 series tournament in Charleston (USA) Yulia Putintseva (Kazakhstan, WTA 47) in three sets of 2 hours and 48 minutes.

WTA 500 Charleston. Preparation. 1/32 final

Elina Svitolina (Ukraine) – Yulia Putintseva (Kazakhstan) – 7:6 (7:3), 2:6, 4:6

The start of the match was not the easiest for Elina, but it was not worth waiting for strong tennis from an athlete who had not played for a year. The Ukrainian lost the first match at reception and soon caught fire on the service at 3:40 p.m. She still took the game and slowly started to participate in the game. He took a break in the third game, but immediately gave up his serve. Elina knows how to play on dirt, albeit gray. Her main weapon was initially shortened blows, but Putintseva also knows a lot about this. Throughout the match, the girls often drove each other into the net, and Elina, according to experience, did not pull out the most suitable balls.

In the eighth game, the Ukrainian took a break again, but he could not maintain the advantage again and immediately lost his serve. Several unsuccessful strikes followed. Practices didn’t flow smoothly, of course, but Elina’s mistakes at the reception helped Yulia reach the set point in game 10. But Svitolina saved him, and in the next game there was already a hidden set point. But in the end, the girls took their serve and the game went to a tie-break.

It was not possible to make a successful start at the tie-break – Putintseva took the lead 3:1. But then Elina showed that she is not only the third racket in the world, and defeating people like Putintseva is not only in her power, but in general spit. With a score of 1:3, the Ukrainian scored 6 points in a row in a dominant style and took the first set.

In the second game, fatigue started to show itself. Elina lost the first game to zero on the serve, then she didn’t score a single point on the reception either, and lost 0:30 in the third game. Mistakes, fatigue, better tennis than the opponent. All this led to Svitolina not being able to take a break in the crucial 4th game and then losing her serve – the score was 1:4 *. Reversing the game in the second set did not work, the result was 2:6.

The third set started in the same way as the previous set – he lost one game on his serve. At the reception, Elina made a strong forehand from the 15:30 score, took the field several times and took a 2:1 lead. But it was not possible to consolidate the success, the Ukrainian did not take a break and flew in the fifth match on the field at 15:40. He still snatched up the game in a tight game, but could not compete any further at the reception and soon lost his game as well. The score was 3:4*, in the absence of a break, Putintseva would have served for the match. Elina managed to interrupt the presentation of the representative of Kazakhstan and made an incredibly important backbreak. But unfortunately it didn’t work. The field was given again, you need to take a break again and this time the task did not work. Putintseva closed the match, and Elina lost the first match after the decree.