IN a rather strange day at Chicago Women’s Open, top seed Elina Svitolina was one of the rare constants, putting together her most dominant performance since winning bronze at the Tokyo Olympics to blow seventh seed Frenchwoman Kristina Mladenovic away in 55 minutes. The Ukrainian talent won 6-1 6-0 in a complete rout to storm into the quarter finals as the clear favourite at the event.

In the last week prior to the US Open, Svitolina is the only Top 10 player left on court, and she was able to account for Mladenovic thanks to a whopping 88.9 per cent first serve points success rate, off a 64.3 per cent clip. Whilst Mladenovic was consistent on serve with 70 per cent of her first serve going in, she only won 46.4 per cent of points off her first serve, and a lowly 25 per cent off her second, to be broken five times and never create a break point opportunity herself. She had just the one game for the match, and won 32.9 per cent of the total points in the less-than-an-hour contest.

The match was one of only two fully completed clashes for the day, with ninth seed Frenchwoman Alize Cornet getting up over fifth seed Czech Marketa Vondrousova in three sets. Having to come back from a set down, Cornet won 2-6 6-4 6-3 in two hours and 13 minutes to book a spot in the semi-finals. both players broke their opponents four times, with Vondrousova the more consistent of the two with a higher success rate off her serve, and better success rate off her return – even winning six more points for the match – but Cornet broke at opportune times to secure the win.

In the other matches both featuring Czechs, Tereza Martincova had to retire midway through the third set against Swede Rebecca Peterson, whilst Varvara Gracheva‘s contest with eighth seed Ukrainian Marta Kostyuk was suspended in the second set. Martincova won the first set against Peterson in a tiebreaker, but then the Swede took control as Martincova ended up having to retire due to injury when she was down, 6-7 6-2 4-1 in the third set. Gracheva lost the first set in a tiebreaker to Kostyuk, before leading 5-3 in the second prior to the match being suspended due to the onset of darkness.

Meanwhile over in Cleveland, all four quarter finals were completed on time, with a major upset seeing sixth seed Pole Magda Linette completely destroy top seed Daria Kasatkina in 63 minutes. Linette won 6-1 6-2 to advance through to the semi-final, serving six aces and winning 62.9 and 70.6 per cent of her first and second serve points off a 67.3 per cent clip. She also broke five times from six chances, and saved two of three break point opportunities facing her, whilst also capitalising off Kasatkina’s second serve, with a 75 per cent winning record.

In other results, second seed Estonian Anett Kontaveit advanced through with a three-set win over Czech Katerina Siniakova, 6-3 5-7 6-2. Kontaveit needed two hours and 39 minutes to book her place in the final four and set up a clash with seventh seed Spaniard Sara Sorribes Tormo. The Spanish talent defeated ninth seed, China’s Zhang Shuai 6-3 6-1 in her quarter final, while the sole remaining unseeded player in the last four is Romania’s Irina-Camelia Begu, who defeated Belarusian Aliaksandra Sasnovich, 6-2 6-4.

TENNIS IN THE LAND QUARTER FINALS:

[6] Magda Linette (POL) defeated [1] Daria Kasatkina (RUS) 6-1 6-2
[2] Anett Kontaveit (EST) defeated Katerina Siniakova (CZE) 6-3 5-7 6-2
[7] Sara Sorribes Tormo (ESP) defeated [9] Zhang Shuai (CHN) 6-3 6-1
Irina-Camelia Begu (ROU) defeated Aliaksandra Sasnovich (BLR) 6-2 6-4

CHICAGO WOMEN’S OPEN QUARTER FINALS:

[1] Elina Svitolina (UKR) defeated [7] Kristina Mladenovic (FRA) 6-1 6-0
[9] Alize Cornet (FRA) defeated [5] Marketa Vondrousova (CZE) 2-6 6-4 6-3
[8] Marta Kostyuk (UKR) leads Varvara Gracheva (CZE) 7-6 3-5 SUSP
Rebecca Peterson (SWE) defeated Tereza Martincova (CZE) 6-7 6-2 4-1 RET

Picture credit: WTA/Jimmie48