By Mike McIntyre
Elina Svitolina doesn't like being compared to other players nor does she spend an excessive amount of time trying to predict what they will try to do against her on the court. "I try to just play my game and be really focused on what I have to do with the ball and where I have to place the ball. That's my main goal," she has said. That goal was realized on Sunday in Toronto as Svitolina stayed focused and won the Rogers Cup 6-4, 6-0 over Caroline Wozniacki, alerting the tennis world that she is a major threat as the final Grand Slam of the year approaches at the U.S. Open.
Photo Cred Mike McIntyre
The match started out on even footing with both players breaking each other twice early, but at 4-4 it was Svitolina who would break for 5-4 and then manage to hold her serve to close-out the opening set. In the second set the 5th seeded Svitolina would break Wozanicki right away and never look back.
Overall Svitolina broke her more experienced opponent in six of Wozniacki's eight service games and was able to negate any nerves she may have been feeling in closing out the match with ease. Although she made it look easy, Svitolina admitted that she was equally relieved and excited to be the last player standing. "It's been really, really tough physically. Today was very hot. So I've been really struggling. So I'm just very happy that it's finished. And with a title, it's even more special."
While some reporters in her post-match press conference mentioned that Svitolina seemed to "fly under the radar" coming into Toronto, the win should be anything but a surprise. It was her fifth tournament victory of the year and she becomes the first WTA player to win three Premier 5 events in the same season. With previous Rogers Cup champions either retired or currently away from the tour, (Serena Williams and Belinda Bencic) Toronto was guaranteed to have a new champion this year. Svitolina's name might not yet be as recognizable as Wozniacki's or other top-ten mainstays like Simona Halep or Venus Williams, but her win today along with others this year reveal she will likely stay among the best in the game for the foreseeable future.
Photo Cred Mike McIntyre
Svitolina handled four top-ten players in Toronto over the past few days including Venus Williams, Garbine Muguruza, Simona Halep and then Wozniacki in the final. She beat those four WTA stars by a combined score of 52-22 and only dropped one set - the opener to Muguruza on Friday.
For Wozniacki, her losing streak in finals continues in 2017 as she now drops to 0-6 without winning a single set in any of those matches. Still, she has seen her ranking return to the top-ten this year and she even has a shot at returning to World No. 1 depending on how things go from here. After the match she remained positive stating that, "It was a good week and I beat some great players, and I can really take a lot with me and be proud of that."
Photo Cred Mike McIntyre
As for Svitolina, at only 22 years old she has clearly established herself as one of the few players of the early-twenty crowd on the tour that is ready to make her presence felt and push for the No. 1 ranking. She got some much needed revenge from her French Open collapse at the hands of Simona Halep when she thrashed the Romanian 6-1, 6-1 in the semi-finals in Toronto and with five tournament wins in five finals, Svitolina is proving to be able to handle the magnitude of those big moments.
Photo Cred Neena Channan
Next for the young Ukrainian will be to assert herself at the Grand Slam level. Her quarter-final results at the French Open in 2015 and again this year are her greatest moments to-date at the majors. With the way Svitolina has progressed this season and with her incredible run this week in Toronto, she certainly is capable of taking that next step. We'll have to wait and see if she will be playing on Arthur Ashe Stadium on September 9th to find out if that next step will happen this season or not.
Photo Cred Mike McIntyre
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