Elina Svitolina Eases Past Johanna Konta To Reach The Semifinals at US Open 2019

The fifth seed, Elina Svitolina faced the 16th seed, Johanna Konta in the quarterfinals of US Open 2019. The Ukrainian defeated Konta 6-4, 6-4 and reached her first-ever semifinals at US Open. With this win, Elina Svitolina became the first Ukrainian woman to reach the semifinals in Flushing Meadows and on Monday she will be ranked as World Number three.

If she wins the title on Saturday, she will reach her career-high ranking of World Number two. In the semifinals of the Big Apple city, she will face Serena Williams or the 18th seed, Qiang Wang.

At the beginning of the match, both of them made a gutsy start until Elina Svitolina took the break at 3-2 as Konta’s unforced errors prevailed. She was hitting ferocious forehands and followed by Konta changing gears in the next game.

The Brit was on the driver’s seat in the next game, she was steering in the game with her magnificent winners and was successful in taking the break back at 3-3.

Nevertheless, World Number five, Svitolina was on toes in the next game. The Briton failed to respond to her opponent’s fiery groundstrokes and eventually lost her game. With failed returns of Konta and an ace from Svitolina aided her to consolidated her break at 5-3.

The 16th seed continued with her error-strewn form of tennis, but also came up with some blazing returns. Her attempt for a slice landed on the net and consequently, Elina Svitolina moved a set closer to the semifinals of US Open 2019.

Johanna Konta began with a love-hold. Unforced errors by Konta gave rise to a break at 2-2 in the second set. Her on-going unforced errors gave Svitolina a break at 3-2. Till then, Konta committed 25 unforced errors and Svitolina had just 11 of them. 

A perfect forehand drop shot from Konta halted Svitolina from taking a 4-2 lead in the second set and the Brit stabilized the set at 3-3 with a forehand dropshot. With Svitolina breaking back to love with a perfect down-the-line pass, she seemed determined to wrap up the match as soon as possible.

At 5-3, Konta saved two match points of Svitolina on her serve and persisted her stay in the quarterfinal. A backhand pass across the court gave Svitolina her match point. The Ukranian swiftly converted it and progressed into the US Open semifinals.

This is her second straight run to the Slam semifinals. She defeated Karolina Muchova in Wimbledon quarters and progressed into the semifinals against Simona Halep.