Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina fought back from a difficult position to secure a hard fought first round win at the French Open. The seventh seed showed strong character as she recovered from a poor start and survived a tense final set.
Svitolina had suffered an early exit at the Madrid Open last month against Hungary’s Anna Bondar. She again struggled early at Roland Garros and lost control in the opening set after giving away an early break advantage.
The Ukrainian returned strongly in the second set. However, the scoreline did not fully show how difficult the match was.
The 31 year old went 3 1 down in the deciding set. She then found her rhythm and fought back. Svitolina broke serve to move ahead at 4 3.
She looked close to victory while serving at 5 4. But she lost her serve without winning a point and suddenly found herself behind at 6 5. She held her next service game and took the match into a super tiebreak. Her opponent lost control from there and Svitolina completed the comeback.
After the match, Svitolina praised the crowd support and spoke about her effort.
She said, “Definitely the support of you guys has been unbelievable, this kind of battle is never easy. It was an amazing match, I’m pleased with my performance.”
She added, “A first round like this puts you right on track. Mental strength took me over the line, as well as my physical condition.”
Svitolina is expected to be in the stands later on Monday when her husband Gael Monfils begins his French Open campaign against French player Hugo Gaston.
She said, “I will tell him to enjoy it. He always brings the best show.”
