Thailand Open: Svitolina makes light work to book quarter finals spot
TOURNAMENT favourite, Elina Svitolina has bundled out Australian qualifier, Storm Sanders in 57 minutes thanks to a 6-1 6-2 victory in the Round of 16 at the Thailand Open.
Svitolina was far too strong for the Australian to book a quarter finals matchup with Japanese eighth seed Nao Hibino, serving up five aces and winning 82.1 per cent of his first serve points. She only dropped a total of 11 points on-serve, including a double fault, while Sanders was all over the place with her serve, putting just 37.5 per cent of her first serve in the court. By contrast, Sanders also only won half of her first serve points and 36.7 per cent of her second serve points, saving four break point opportunities, but succumbing to five, while the Ukrainian top five player saved one of two.
In other Round of 16 results, fifth seed Magna Linette had an impressive win over Peng Shuai, 7-5 6-1 to stop an all-Chinese quarter final by now setting her sights on Wang Xiyu. The unseeded Chinese player booked a spot in the quarter finals with a 6-3 6-4 win over Austria’s Barbara Haas. Romania’s Patricia Tig also won through to the last eight with a straight sets win, and now takes on fourth seed, Zheng Saisai in the next round.
Round of 16 Results:
[1] E. Svitolina (UKR) defeated [Q] S. Sanders (AUS) 6-1 6-2
X. Wang (CHN) defeated B. Haas (AUT) 6-3 6-4
[5] M. Linette (POL) defeated S. Peng (CHN) 7-5 6-1
P. Tig (ROU) defeated X. You (CHN) 6-1 6-3