Continuing her sensational 2017 run is Elina Svitolina, who defeated Germany’s Carina Withhoeft in the third round of Wimbledon in straight sets, 6-1, 7-5. The young Ukranian kept her poise throughout the match, committing just one double fault to Witthoeft’s five and eventually running away with a 27-13 edge in winners.
This is the first time that Svitolina has made the second week of play at the All England Club, and tennis fans shouldn’t be surprised to see the 22-year-old reach new heights at another Grand Slam tournament given all the success she’s had this season. Wimbledon’s No. 4 seed had just tied her career-best finishes at the Australian Open (third round) and the French Open (quarterfinal) earlier this year.
Above all else, few players can compate to Svitolina’s 2017 campaign. The Odessa native won four of her eight-career WTA Tour singles titles this year alone and has even gone a superb 19-5 since the clay-court season began in late April. And while her fourth-round opponent in Jelena Ostapenko has momentum just as impressive as hers, she won all three of her Wimby matches thus far in straight sets to give her a slight edge heading into Monday’s match.
Jelena Ostapenko still refuses to be dubbed as a mere one-hit wonder, as she now finds herself in the fourth round of another Grand Slam tournament after eliminating Italy’s Camila Giorgi from Wimbledon contention, 7-5, 7-5. Although the 20-year-old lost the battle of the aces (7-4 in favor of Giorgi), she displayed better tenacity than her third-round opponent by converting five of her eight chances at break points.
Ostapenko’s dream 2017 season got off to a hot start by making it as far as the third round of the Australian Open. She then won it all at Roland Garros to shock the tennis world as the new French Open champion. And similar to Svitolina, the young upstart has gone on quite a tear since the clay-court season began, winning 22 matches and making two final-round appearances to date.
What separates Ostapenko from Svitolina, however, is that she’s starting to show some nerves at the All England Club. The 13th-seeded Latvian needed all three sets to escape the first and second round of the tournament, and Giorgi almost gave her a scare as well by taking five games in each of their two sets played in the third round.
Having said that, we’ll have to tip this upcoming fourth-round showdown in slight favor of Svitolina. Then again, we wouldn’t be surprised either if Ostapenko takes down another one of the WTA’s prime contenders this 2017 and stake her claim as a true contender just the same.
Writer’s Prediction
Svitolina (-140) prevails over Ostapenko in three hard-fought sets.
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