“Extremely Tough For Me”: Elina Svitolina Reflects on Her Previous Heartbreaking Loss to Ashleigh Barty

World Number one Ashleigh Barty continues to produce power pact performance in the Sunshine Double city of Miami, Florida. She steamrolled over Grand Slam champion Jelena Ostapenko, soared past her mate Victoria Azarenka and battled against Aryna Sabalenka at Miami Open 2021.

Up next, Miami’s defending champion Barty sets up a pop-corn match-up against Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina in the semifinals.

They have played each a total of six times, wherein Barty has defeated her just once at the 2019 WTA Championships finals in Shenzhen.

During that final, Elina was the defending champion, and losing to Ash in straight sets was disheartening for her. Also, that year Svitolina concluded the season without a title.

“I think we are both big fighters. For sure the match in Shenzhen was extremely tough for me after,” fifth-seed Svitolina mentioned.

“I hate losing the finals and especially Shenzhen finals, it’s a huge event. I wanted to defend my title. So it was extremely tough for me to lose that.”

Ashleigh Barty guaranteed to stay at the top-spot for atleast 74 weeks

With World No.2 Naomi Osaka’s loss in a straight-set loss to Maria Sakkari at Miami Open quarterfinals, Ash Barty cements WTA’s top spot for a few more weeks now.

She will stay on the apex for a minimum of 74 weeks. Osaka had chances to claim the number one spot if she had lifted the title in Miami.

As Ash is guaranteed to reach 74 weeks, the only active female tennis player with more weeks (more than 74) at Number one is Serena Williams (319 weeks).

Steffi Graf (377), Martina Navratilova (332), Chris Evert (260), Martina Hingis (209), Monica Seles (178), Justine Henin (117), Lindsay Davenport (98).