WTA Rising stars Elina Svitolina and Bojana Jovanovski clashed for the Baku Cup

Elina Svitolina in action yesterday

Baku Cup

Country: Baku, Azerbaijan

Surface: Hard court

Draw: 32 players

Tier: International level event

Ranking points: 280 WTA ranking points 

Two more of the youngsters on my list of WTA challengers has made good again this week. I have yet to discuss either Bojana Jovanovski or Elina Svitolina, but they are both on that “Stars of tomorrow” list, so keep your eyes peeled for those in the coming weeks. 

This Sunday both these rising stars faced each other in the final. 

Elina Svitolina won the title here last year, making her the only teenager to win a WTA title in 2013, when she defeated Shahar Peer, she was 18. This year, she won through the draw beating former French Open champion Francesca Schiavone in the semi-finals.

Svitolina, who turns 20 this coming September is the first teenager to win 2 WTA titles since 2010, when Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova did the same, she actually won 3 while she was a teenager. Elina did it in style though, by defending her first title successfully yesterday and losing only 1 set en-route to the final. She is also the first player to defend the Baku title since its inception in 2011.

Nerves must have gotten the best of Bojana Jovanovski in the first set, Svitolina needed just 22 mins to bag the first set, the second set, however, was a different story. Jovanovski refused to surrender her serve again in the match, after 12 straight holds, a rarity on the women’s tour, both these ladies looked good for the tiebreak. But again, Svitolina raced ahead, taking the first 4 points of the tiebreak. She didn’t look back, closing the match out on her first match point while her counterpart could only muster 2 points in the tiebreak.

“I think we were both nervous at the start of the match, but I handled it really well.

In the second set she was trying to fight, and she’s not the type of person who gives up - I’ve watched her fighting for every ball and for every set before and I was actually expecting this fightback.

But I was playing really well here and I’m happy I could defend my title. I’m really happy with the way I’m playing and I’m enjoying myself - I’m feeling really confident with my game right now.” said Svitolina.

Elina Svitolina, holds the Baku trophy for the second
consecutive year

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