{"id":10229,"date":"2018-09-30T16:49:53","date_gmt":"2018-09-30T20:49:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/?p=10229"},"modified":"2018-09-30T16:49:53","modified_gmt":"2018-09-30T20:49:53","slug":"elina-svitolina-needs-to-overcome-slam-block-in-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2018\/09\/30\/elina-svitolina-needs-to-overcome-slam-block-in-2019\/","title":{"rendered":"Elina Svitolina Needs to Overcome Slam Block in 2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Before both the Australian<\/a> and French Opens<\/a> 2018, you\u2019d have won 9\/10 arguments with the view that 23-year-old Ukrainian Elina Svitolina held the best chance. Unfortunately, these are just two examples of Slam underachievement from this undisputed talent. Lack of Slam achievement contributed to the parting of ways with coach Thierry Ascione. Veteran American coach Nick Saviano takes the reins until year’s end.<\/p>\n

Svitolina Needs to Work on Slam Preparation in the Off-season<\/h3>\n

Ahead of the Australian Open 2018, the Ukrainian\u2019s robust serve and potent ground stroking saw her capture the title in Brisbane. Her form had momentum; she had more than enough ability, but something went awry in Melbourne. The course of events repeats at the French Open. Svitolina comfortably dispatched of Simona Halep in Rome, retaining her Premier level title. She followed this up by losing to Mihaela Buzarnescu in the French Open 3rd round.<\/p>\n

A recent first round defeat to the explosive Aryna Sabalenka (Wuhan Open) and a disappointing defeat to Krunic (China Open) suggests that Svitolina\u2019s mind is wandering towards the off-season, already.<\/p>\n

Svitolina has Many Plusses to Put Right the Slam Focus Wrong<\/h3>\n

Injury doesn’t really plague her; the Ukrainian is good at keeping herself match fit. Svitolina has so many weapons, including an ability to grind opponents down with her pronounced baseline game. The Ukrainian knows full well that a Slam is within her gift. It is being able to focus over the fortnight format that needs instant attention.<\/p>\n

Svitolina\u2019s Long Term Coach Needs Slam Pedigree<\/h3>\n

The general consensus is that Nick Saviano has taken the reins until the year’s end. Svitolina\u2019s remaining schedule is expected to be light. The Ukrainian is 0-2 under Saviano. Eugenie Bouchard and Sloane Stephens are among previous players to work under Saviano. Whether or not he is the right fit for Svitolina remains to be seen. The search continues for someone who can form a long-term Slam winning partnership with the Ukrainian. On ability, Svitolina is capable of winning Australian Open 2019. However, the transitory nature of her current coaching situation is not conducive with helping her with that aim.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s an often overlooked scenario, but Svitolina\u2019s form is suffering. Coaching uncertainty can\u2019t be helping, at a time when she should be focusing on Slam preparation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Before both the Australian and French Opens 2018, you\u2019d have won 9\/10 arguments with the view that 23-year-old Ukrainian Elina Svitolina held the best chance. Unfortunately, these are just two examples of Slam underachievement from this undisputed talent. Lack of Slam achievement contributed to the parting of ways with coach Thierry Ascione. Veteran American coach […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2169,"featured_media":6042,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,9,4],"tags":[3654,1766,2306,3927,394,291,2682,3926,3229,463,2497,3928],"class_list":["post-10229","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-news","category-wta","tag-aliaksandra-krunic","tag-aryna-sabalenka","tag-australian-open-2018","tag-australian-open-2019","tag-elina-svitolina","tag-eugenie-bouchard","tag-french-open-2018","tag-nick-saviano","tag-slam","tag-sloane-stephens","tag-ukraine","tag-ukrainian-tennis"],"modified_by":"Yesh Ginsburg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10229","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2169"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10229"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10229\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6042"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}