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BRONZE MEDAL SEIZED! Elina Svitolina Displays Tenacious Play to Defeat in 7 Match-Points Elena Rybakina at Tokyo Olympics 2020

Published 07/31/2021, 7:40 AM EDT

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via Reuters

The Tokyo Olympics 2020 has almost reached its end and fans witnessed a great match of tennis today. Facing World No.20 Elena Rybakina in the Bronze medal match, World No.6 Elina Svitolina made an incredible comeback and defeated her opponent in three sets to finish third place at the Olympic Games. The final scoreline of the match was 1-6, 7(7)-6(5), 6-4.

Set-1: Elena Rybakina dominates the entire set

Elena Rybakina began the set on a high as she won the first game quite easily. However, Elina Svitolina fought back and equalized the scoreline in the very next game. Even though she gained two break-points in the next game, Rybakina saved them and was now leading 2-1.

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It was Rybakina who broke first in the fourth game and extended her lead to 3-1. She won the following service game and was now leading comfortably at 4-1.

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Svitolina failed to win even a single point on her serve in the sixth game and thus, Rybakina broke yet again to take her lead to 5-1. Serving for the set, she didn’t take much time and won the set 6-1 on her first set-point in just 29 minutes.

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Set-2: Elina Svitolina fights back

Serving first, World No.6 Svitolina got off to a great start this time as she established an early 1-0 lead over Rybakina. However, the Kazakh player leveled the scoreline at 1-1 in the very next game.

Rybakina broke in the third game and then won the following game as well to take her lead to 3-1. Svitolina had to do something to make a comeback in the match and she didn’t allow her opponent to break this time and narrowed the margin to 3-2 after the end of the fifth game. Even though Rybakina saved two break-points in the subsequent game, Svitolina managed to break on the third break-point and thus, equalized the scoreline at 3-3.

Both the player continued to win on their service games and as a result, the set entered the tie-breaker. Sviltolina performed brilliantly under pressure and thus, sealed the tie-breaker. As a result, she conquered the set 7-6 in 62 minutes.

Set-3: Elina Svitolina takes the decider

Rybakina took an early 3-0 lead after breaking in the second game. It appeared as if she had regained form and momentum. However, Svitolina saved two break-points in the fourth game and finally narrowed down the margin to 3-1.

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via Reuters

Interestingly, the Ukrainian player broke back in the seventh game and brought the scoreline to 4-3. She broke yet again in the ninth game and was now just one game away from winning the Bronze medal.

Serving for the set, Svitolina earned six match-points but Rybakina saved all of them. However, the World No.6 player finally won the set 6-4, and thus, sealed the match on her seventh match-point.

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Written by:

Anshul Singh

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Anshul Singh is a tennis author at EssentiallySports, currently pursuing Journalism Honors from Delhi University. Having significant experience with content, Anshul has authored over 500 tennis articles. He has previously worked as a writer and an editor for DU Express, penning riveting articles on sports, politics, and culture.
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