Add Category
Updated
Elina Svitolina's spectacular collapse in her French Open quarter-final against Simona Halep must be a candidate for meltdown of the year, but the Ukrainian says it was not entirely unexpected.
Svitolina was serving for the match at 5-1 in the second set but choked and lost 12 of the 13 remaining games as Halep reached the semis for the second time since 2014, the year she finished runner-up, with a 3-6, 7-6 (8/6), 6-0 win.
Asked for an explanation, Svitolina, one of the pre-tournament favourites after winning two titles on clay this year, said: "I think she started to play much better. Of course, I let her a little bit back into the game, but she knows how to come back in the matches, and she always fights for every ball.
"So I was expecting this. It was quite normal."
Suddenly getting all her clay-court tricks out of her bag, Romanian Halep stopped making unforced errors as fifth seed Svitolina completely lost her grip on the match.
"A little bit of nerves, of course, played the trick. But, yeah, it was quite expected and such a big event. It can happen," said the Paris-based Svitolina, who at 22 was playing in her second French Open quarter-final.
Third seed Halep next faces Czech second seed Karolina Pliskova in a semi-final that Svitolina, who had a match point during the tiebreak, could have felt was hers.
Asked how she managed not to let the frustration take over, she said smiling: "You want me to cry, no?"
Top ranking in touching distance for Pliskova
If a place in the French Open final were not a big enough prize, the world number one spot will also be at stake when third-ranked Pliskova meets Halep.
US Open runner-up Pliskova beat local hope Caroline Garcia 7-6 (7/3), 6-4 in the quarters and will take the top ranking from Germany's Angelique Kerber if she prevails against Halep, who would need to go on and take the title to seize the top ranking.
It would be tempting to suggest the women's champion will come from the sixth career clash between Pliskova and Halep.
But that would be to discount the threat of fearless Latvian youngster Jelena Ostapenko and Swiss 30th seed Timea Bacsinszky, who are first on Philippe Chatrier Court.
Both have their birthdays on Thursday — Ostapenko her 20th and Bacsinszky her 28th — but only one of them will be celebrating with a maiden grand slam final.
Czech second seed Pliskova had never made it past the second round in Paris before this year and so had hardly given much thought to the possibility of becoming number one in the world.
"Coming into this tournament, there were a few people who told me, 'you have to be in the final to be number one'. I was like, there is no chance I make the final here," she said.
"And now it's close, but it's close and it's far because I'm playing against somebody who I would say one of the best girls on clay. It's not like you're going to get it for free."
Ostapenko thrashed 38 winners past former world number one Caroline Wozniacki to become the first teenager to reach the semi-finals since Ana Ivanovic in 2007.
There are many similarities with the Serb who also relied on an all-out attacking style and Ostapenko is unlikely to reel in her game against the vastly more experienced Bacsinszky.
Reuters
First posted