On Monday, March 5th, NYC’s Madison Square Garden hosted an eight-player tennis spectacle called Tiebreak Tens, a unique competition format featuring no games and sets, just tiebreaks. The star-studded exhibition event gathered the Williams sisters, Sorana Cirstea, retired Daniela Hantuchova, Zhang Shuai, Coco Vandeweghe, Elina Svitolina, who dominated the tournament, and Marion Bartoli, who played her first match in four and a half years as a kick off to her planned return to competitive tennis.
Bartoli’s comeback was marked by a 10-5 loss to Serena Williams, who is also getting ready for a return to the WTA circuit at this week’s BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, although the American had played two matches after giving birth, an Abu Dhabi exhibition in December 2017 and a double match in February’s Fed Cup.
In a format in which every point counts, Svitolina won 17 straight points during wins over Venus Williams and Coco Vandeweghe before defeating Zhang Shuai 10-3 in the final. Zhang had defeated Serena Williams in the semis, 13-11.
The world No.4 Svitolina, who has already won two WTA tournaments this year, Brisbane and Dubai, is excited to add the Tiebreak Tens trophy to her collection. For playing a total of 33 points in Madison Square Garden and winning 27 of them, Svitolina collected $250,000 in prize money.
