Sixth seed Elina Svitolina kicked off her 2017 season in style Monday morning, opening her campaign with a comfortable 6-3, 6-3 victory over the always dangerous Monica Puig to ease into the second round at the Brisbane International, where she will be awaited by American Shelby Rogers.

Smooth Sailing Svitolina Just Too Solid for Erratic Puig

In a match that featured a classic case of offence vs. defence, it was Svitolina, known for her world-class defensive skills, who appeared to be the more comfortable of the two right from the start, and it wasn’t long before she managed to gain the upper hand in the fourth game from the receiving end. After trading a trio of routine service holds to start the match, Puig began to come undone, hitting a pair of double faults en route to getting broken at love, which proved to be just the start of her undoing in a series of costly errors.

Monica Puig hits a serve during her first round match against Elina Svitolina at the 2017 Brisbane International. | Photo: Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images\
Monica Puig hits a serve during her first round match against Elina Svitolina at the 2017 Brisbane International. | Photo: Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images
 

Making the most of her opponent’s misfortunes, the Ukrainian would easily consolidate the break soon thereafter before a much-needed fightback from Puig appeared to have steadied the ship and gotten the match back on serve. After a coaching visit from longtime coach Juan Todero, Puig began to show flashes of her world-beating form, the one that saw her take home Puerto Rico’s first Olympic gold medal, but it wouldn’t last.

Within moments of surrendering the single-break advantage, the sixth-seeded Ukrainian quickly reclaimed the break at the perfect time, before going on to serve out a hard-fought opening set, doing so at the fifth bite of the cherry, 6-3.

Elina Svitolina hits a forehand during her first round match against Monica Puig at the 2017 Brisbane International. | Photo: Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images
Elina Svitolina hits a forehand during her first round match against Monica Puig at the 2017 Brisbane International. | Photo: Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images
 

Svitolina Carries Out the Assault, Secures Berth in Round Two

Picking up right where she left off in the early stages of the second set, an early break was all that was needed for Svitolina to continue cruising along with very little difficulty. After completely dismantling the powerful Puig serve in the opening game, the relatively untroubled Ukrainian continued to ride the same wave of momentum for much of the second set, with her Puerto Rican counterpart being forced to dig deep just to stay in touch.

This trend would continue until the ninth game where after some stunning defending from the world number 14, the chance came for Svitolina to close out a very difficult first-round opponent on Puig’s own serve, and she needed no second invitation. After a beautiful drop shot from the unseeded Puerto Rican saved the first of those match points, she could not repeat the feat the second time around; an untimely double fault handing Svitolina the victory in an hour and 16 minutes.

Elina Svitolina hits a forehand during her first round match against Monica Puig at the 2017 Brisbane International. | Photo: Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images
Elina Svitolina hits a forehand during her first round match against Monica Puig at the 2017 Brisbane International. | Photo: Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images
 

“It was tough,”  Svitolina told the press about playing her first match of the new season. “But it was the same for both of us. I was trying to put this in my head that for everyone is the same situation, and just trying to stay positive during all the match. Everything was quite solid, I think, today and that's why I got a W.”

Stats Corner: Unforced Errors the Achilles Heel for Puig

Interestingly, for two players who have very different styles of play, Svitolina and Puig ended with very nearly the same number of winners, but it was in the unforced errors column that the match was ultimately won and lost. While the sixth seed was able to keep her errors to a minimum, the same can’t be said about Puig, who hit 36 unforced errors and essentially gifted just over 55% of the points Svitolina won in the whole match.

Elina Svitolina hits a backhand during her first round match against Monica Puig at the 2017 Brisbane International. | Photo: Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images
Elina Svitolina hits a backhand during her first round match against Monica Puig at the 2017 Brisbane International. | Photo: Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images
 

“My game was quite solid,”  Svitolina assessed after the match. “I didn’t do so many unforced errors, which is good because with [a] couple of changes it can happen. Yeah, it was not bad match today.”

Next Up for Svitolina: Shelby Rogers

Awaiting Svitolina in the second round is American Shelby Rogers, who opened her season with a three-set victory over Eugenie Bouchard yesterday. The pair’s only meeting came more than two years ago at the former WTA International-level event in Osaka, Japan, where the Ukrainian outlasted the American, 7-6(2), 4-6, 6-1.

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About the author
Max Gao
Max Gao is a sports writer specializing in tennis and the Toronto Blue Jays, who has also written on the Rogers Cup website as a guest contributor in the past.