Elina Svitolina conquers Kimiko Date-Krumm and the Royal Indian Open – Tennis News
Ukrainian starlet, Elina Svitolina, stunned fifth seeded Kimiko Date-Krumm from Japan in straight sets at the Royal Indian Open 2012 on Sunday. She notched up a 6-2, 6-3 victory against the 42-year-old to capture her maiden career title at this WTA (Women’s
Tennis Association) 125 series event taking place in Pune, India.
Seeded seventh in this tournament, Svitolina upset the former world number four in their first battle against each other. After stealing the limelight in one hour and 18 minutes, Svitolina grabbed the title and took lead in the head-to-head series by 1-0
against the Japanese.
Svitolina entered the final round after shocking the former Top 10, Andrea Petkovic from Germany, in straight sets. She stated in a courtside interview after overpowering the Japanese seed:
"The win over Petkovic yesterday gave me a lot of confidence - she's a great player, she was Top 10. I had to play really well. Today I knew how Kimiko plays and knew I just had to play every ball, every point and every game as the last one - I had to stay
really focused. And it all went pretty well."
The 18-year-old stormed into the Balewadi Sports Complex. After Date-Krumm held her serve in the opening game, the Ukrainian unleashed barrage of groundstrokes and reeled off proceeding five games in a row. She plucked her serve once again and clicked the
opener with a 6-2 win.
Ranked 114th in the WTA Premier Rankings, Svitolina kept momentum rolling in the proceeding set. She got the desiderated break in the opening game and took the initial lead. Despite squandering her edge in the very next game, the Ukrainian capitalised
on two more break chances, eventually bagging the set with a 6-3 success.
The Japanese’s showed dismal performance in this battle. She reflected:
"It was not my day - my tactics weren't working. She has a lot of power but she doesn't just hit the ball hard, she's also smart. Now a lot of players just hit the ball, but she was mixing it up, using wide serves and more."
However, Date-Krumm climbed to world number 119 with this success. She entered this tournament standing at number 146.
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