Serena Williams devastates Elina Svitolina - Federation Cup World Group Play-Offs
Former world number one, Serena Williams, crushed the Ukrainian contestant, Elina Svitolina, to give USA 2-0 lead in the World Group Play-offs on Saturday. It was a one-sided encounter and the American spared just three games for the Ukrainian before giving her country a comfortable lead. Final scores were 6-2, 6-1.
A classic display of shear class and domination was witnessed at the clay courts. Williams, 30-year-old, showed no respect for the 17-year-old Ukrainian and took her to the most miserable ride of her life. She absolutely crushed the teenager who had no answers to the all-round onslaught from the ninth ranked American.
The match started with a serve hold at both ends before an exchange of breakthroughs took place. However, it was the time when Williams started to slay her opponent and completely destroyed her; down the line and cross-court winners were raining in the match for the American who won four back-to-back games in the opening set to confirm a thumping triumph in the first half of the match.
Absolutely shattered into pieces by the American, the Ukrainian looked in no position to register a comeback. She lost three serve games on the trot in the second set before breaking her opponent’s serve to save an embarrassing bagel. It was all about Williams who didn’t want to waste any time in ousting the teenager.
Earlier in the day, Christina McHale was tested to limits by Lesya Tsurenko before she could grab a win and give American an early lead in the tie. It was a taxing three-setter that ended 6-1, 4-6, 6-3 for the American. Everyone in the arena thoroughly enjoyed the match and McHale grabbed the most deserving win of the season.
In another tie, Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia slaughtered the Spaniard competitor, Lourdes Dominguez-Lino, in straight sets to commence the tie in an emphatic fashion. The stage is set for some eye-startling matches later on especially in the Russia-Serbia and Italy-Czech semi-final face-offs. All four teams are equally talented and any result is possible in both the ties. However, Maria Sharapova and Vera Zvonareva are missing from the Russian squad that is a major disappointment.
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