Wednesday’s match play at Roland Garros miraculously started on time and four fourth-round women’s matches were played at the same time. I followed the one between top-ranked Serena Williams and Elina Svitolina on Court Philippe Chatrier.
While her sister Venus struggled against Timea Bacsinszky on Court Suzanne Lenglen, seed No.1 Serena had no trouble dispatching Svitolina, who held serve in the third game of the second set for the first and only time in the match.
From 4-0 down, Svitolina broke Williams to modestly win one game, but that was all we got from the Ukrainian in the first set. In the second set the situation was similar, only that that one game Svitolina won was on her serve.
The 20th-ranked Svitolina had as many as eight break points during the match, seven in the second set, but Serena frustrated her by quickly saving a bunch of them with aces, as usual.
It was such an easy 6-1 6-1 victory for Serena, that she didn’t even take off her long-sleeve top, as if she didn’t even properly warm up, while Svitolina was in a tank and skirt.
