Elina Svitolina Impresses at Australian Open 2019

Elina Svitolina reached the third round of Australian Open 2019 with a straight-sets win over Viktoria Kuzmova.

The Ukrainian sixth seed, 24, came through a closely contested opening set to win 6-4 6-1 on Rod Laver Arena.

Svitolina will square off against China’s Zhang Shuai in the next round. Shuai defeated Krystyna Pliskova in her own match.

Meanwhile, Czech seventh seed, and Krystyna’s sister, Karolina Pliskova recovered from losing the opening set to beat American Madison Brengle 4-6 6-1 6-0 on Melbourne Arena.

US Open champion Naomi Osaka was also made to work harder than she may have wanted. She came from a break down in the second set to win 6-2 6-4 against Slovenia’s Tamara Zidansek.

American Madison Keys, who reached the Australian Open semi-finals four years ago, set up a third-round meeting with Belgium’s Elise Mertens after easing past Russian Anastasia Potapova 6-3 6-4.

Mertens, a semi-finalist in Melbourne herself last year, had earlier beaten Russia’s Margarita Gasparyan 6-1 7-5.

Latvian 13th seed Anastasija Sevastova was taken to three sets by Canadian qualifier Bianca Andreescu, eventually winning 6-3 3-6 6-2.

Meanwhile, China’s Wang Qiang and Italy’s Camila Giorgi took less than an hour to book their third-round spots, beating Serbian Aleksandra Krunic 6-2 6-3 and Polish qualifier Iga Swiatek 6-2 6-0, respectively.

There was an awkward moment when Svitolina was asked about her relationship with Gael Monfils.  The Frenchman happened to be in her players box to cheer her on at Australian Open 2019.

Fortunately, she shut it down fairly quickly by saying, “We are here for tennis, so that’s why it was a bit strange,”.

“I didn’t really expect to be asked that because I just finished my match.

“He’s there for me, he’s supporting me, and I’m there for him as well. He understands, I understand, what we’re going through. It’s great.”

Monfils lost his own match against American player Taylor Fritz.