Fourth seed Elina Svitolina continued her quest for her first Major championship with a 6-3, 6-4 victory over Viktoria Kuzmova of Slovakia in the second round of the French Open. The Ukranian was on the back foot for most of this match as it was the 20-year-old dictating play from the baseline, hitting 29 winners compared to Svitolina’s 14, but she also committed 41 errors to only 15 for the World #4.
The Slovakian earned two break points in the opening game of the match, but she wasted both opportunities. The 20-year-old was then under pressure and facing three break points, but she managed to barely hang on to her serve. After 30 points were played in the those opening two games, the next few were a series of comfortable holds until the sixth game, Kuzmova saving two more break points.
Finally, after seeing all of her service games go to deuce, Kuzmova cracked under the pressure and she was broken. Serving for the set, Svitolina had little trouble, holding to love and claiming the opener in just 37 minutes.
Both players held to start the second set, but it was Kuzmova who again was feeling the heat in the third game as she fell behind 15-40. Dumping a forehand into the net, she surrendered her serve to give Svitolina a 2-1 edge. After saving a break point to hold, the Ukranian had her serve breached in the next game after a series of backhands saw Svitolina hit the final one long.
Undeterred, the World #4 struck right back, breaking with a blistering forehand to go ahead 4-3. Broken back yet again, Svitolina finally claimed the lead for good, Kuzmova rapping a backhand into the bottom of the net. The Slovakian again hit a backhand squarely into the net on match point, bringing an end to play after 1 hour and 24 minutes and sending Svitolina to a third-round match against 31st seed Mihaela Buzarnescu.
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