On Saturday, May 27, the final match of the WTA 250 series soil tournament held in Strasbourg (France) will be played between Ukrainian tennis player Elina Svitolina (WTA 508) and country representative 404 Anna Blinkova (WTA 66). . The fight will begin no later than 16:00 Kiev time.

Elina Svitolina

The world’s third former racket and former leader of Ukrainian women’s tennis returned to the court at a tournament in Charleston on April 3. In 2022, Elina announced the suspension of her career due to pregnancy, gave birth to a daughter in October and went on maternity leave. The first duel after the return of the Ukrainians was held on gray ground against Yulia Putintseva. Even then it was clear that the character of the Ukrainian woman was not lost, but the physique had to be worked on.

He lost that match, and then a series of failures followed. Svitolina also lost to Clara Tauson in the halftime match and missed the win with Alexandra Ignatik and was barely able to face Alexandra Sasnovich in Madrid. Still, Elina did not give up and continued to believe in her future success. The first breakthrough came at the WTA 125 tournament in Saint-Malo. There, Elina advanced to the semi-finals, beating Despina Papamichail, Isalin Bonaventure and Leolia Zhanzhan on the way. The Ukrainian stood one step away from the final and soon lost to veteran Sloane Stevens, who won the cup on those courts.

Then Svitolina took the thousandth place in Rome, where she won twice in her career. One of Elina’s favorite tournaments ended early – already in the 1/64 finals, she lost to outstanding Ukrainian compatriot Lesya Tsurenko. But there was a struggle (4:6, 3:6) and progress was slowly starting to be seen.

WTA. Elina Svitolina

Elina arrived in Strasbourg to prepare for Roland Garros. At the beginning of the tournament, Svitolina had problems with Louise Chiriko with 6:4, 7:6 (7:1), but the Ukrainian still pinned the American. Next, Elina was supposed to play against the winner of the match, Kathy Volynets – Elise Mertens, and Svitolina, purely in theory, could fly out of anyone. But fate smiled at the Ukrainian – both tennis players withdrew from the tournament, and Elina had to play with her boyfriend and lucky loser Erin Rutliff.

But even here Svitolina was lucky because she did not have to expend extra energy: the New Zealand representative refused the match. Elina reached the quarterfinals without a fight, where she played with Varvara Gracheva. The Ukrainian player took the first set and had no problems in the second set until the score was 4:1. But not without a recession, Grachova won 3 games in a row and the score was even. But Svitolina won the remaining 2 matches not without the help of her character and luck, closing the Russian.

In the semi-finals, Elina had to play with the local favorite of the people, Clara Burel. The Frenchwoman completely controlled the course of the fight until 4:1 in the second set and won the first set 6:4 without any problems. Clara threw ungrabbing shots, surprising Elina with non-standard shots, but insanely high-quality and smart tennis. Svitolina played Clara’s tennis, with which Burel felt comfortable. However, Clara did not manage to play the entire match at a high level, her serve was interrupted in game 7 of the second set and it was time to show why Svitolina was the third racket in the world. Elina left her game at 0:40, took a break at 9, failed to deliver a set immediately, but then left the game after winning two games in a row.

WTA. Elina Svitolina

Svitolina took the initiative completely, began to control the course of the meeting, took a break immediately and took the lead 2:0, 3:1. At 3:2, the Ukrainian stopped serving, but immediately took a reverse timeout and no longer gave Burel a chance – 6:3.

After the end of the fight, Svitolina said that the quality of tennis is still far from the highest level possible for her, but the character of the Ukrainian woman is absolutely good, and she herself noted. Elina is well aware that the victory in Strasbourg will give her new impetus to continue her career. She will fight for every point in the final against Blinkova because maybe this will be the match of her life for her, at least in the near future.

Before suspending her career, it is worth remembering Elina’s merits and awards. Elina has reached the semifinals twice at the Grand Slam (Wimbledon 2020 and US Open 2020) and also won the Final tournament in 2018. The Ukrainian played in the WTA Finals (2016, 2019) two more times and also won a bronze medal at the Tokyo Olympics in 2020. Elina has 16 wins and only 3 losses in the WTA finals. She also has 8 trophies and 1 in 125 thousand championships in ITF tournaments she.

Svitolina won her last trophy at a competition in Charleston in August 2021.

Anna Blinkova

What is the position of the Russian woman regarding the war in Ukraine, which was liberated by the land of terror? We’re unlikely to know because Blinkova is quiet in principle, as many tennis players from the swamps do.

In terms of tennis, Anna’s achievements have always been covered by more outstanding athletes from the Russian Federation. But he is still his 66th racket with the 54th highest position in the world.

In Strasbourg, Anna defeated Amandine Ess and lost the first set 4:6. Then the Russian won against Anna-Lena Friedsam, Emma Navarro and Lauren Davis. While the American is far from a clay lover, it’s worth noting that of all the victories, probably only the successful match against Davis. Before the match in Strasbourg, Blinkova was eliminated in the 1/32 final of Rome, losing to the Ukrainian Angelina Kalinina with 2:6, 2:6 unfortunately. In general, in 2023, Anna can only boast of the semifinals in Hobart, where she lost to the same Lauren Davis. In all other tournaments she finished her performances either at the start or in the 2nd round.

WTA. Anna Blinkova

Overall, Blinkova is an average tennis player who can play consistently and cannot distinguish between character, strong serve or confident tennis on the net. His game is enough to beat Friedsam, Navarro and similar level rivals. After all, Elina is from a different clip, a different level and more experienced.

The Russian woman has a WTA 250 trophy in Cluj-Napoca in 2022, as well as a 125k trophy in New Haven and 3 wins in ITF tournaments.

head-to-head statistics

This will be the girls’ first date. Before Elina went on maternity leave, Blinkova’s level was clearly not up to the success of the Ukrainian woman.

To guess

Svitolina is considered a favorite not only because of her status and past achievements. Elina’s game against Burel showed that she was slowly trying to find her old form, could serve well and move competently on the pitch. Yes, and Svitolina has much more experience than Anna. The struggle will be in any situation, but I want to believe in the success of the Ukrainians. Also, Elina has additional motivation and everyone knows what it is… Prediction: Svitolina wins by 1.75 odds.