After being on the verge of losing in the second round against Margarita Gasparyan, Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina had another extremely difficult encounter at Wimbledon, squeezing past Maria Sakkari 6-3 6-7(1) 6-2 after wasting two match points in the second set and then converting her seventh one in the decider.
The 31st-seeded Sakkari opened the match better, which was reflected in her 3-1 lead, but the Greek then simply froze and Svitolina won all the remaining games in the first set, closing it by breaking at love.
In the beginning of the second set, Sakkari was again stronger, earning a 3-0 double break lead, but the eighth-seeded Svitolina clawed back to 6-5 and had two match points on Sakkari’s serve. The 23-year-old saved them both and forced the tiebreak in which she lost just one point.
The third set didn’t feature any comebacks, as Svitolina was a more solid player throughout, breaking Sakkari for 2-1 and then 5-2. The eighth game was highly entertaining, as Svitolina frustratingly wasted a 40-0 lead and three match points with unforced errors, before eventually converting her overall seventh one by virtue of Sakkari’s backhand unforced error.
The 24-year-old Svitolina has now equaled her best Wimbledon showing, the fourth round that she also reached in 2017.