Elina Svitolina became the first player to make the 2019 US Open semi-final when she eased past Britain’s Johanna Konta in the opening quarter-final of the day.
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Opening the Arthur Ashe Stadium for today’s action, Svitolina wasted no time in a straightforward 6-4, 6-4 win over the British number one.
Svitolina made a slow start on her serve when she fell behind 15-30 in her first service game but it got much easier for her after that as she held to 15 to level the set at 2-2. It was in the fifth game that Svitolina won her first break of serve, needing a couple of break points to go 3-2 up but Konta was quick to respond.
Despite hitting a plethora of early unforced errors, Konta also played an attacking brand of tennis that got her a lot more winners and she was back in the set with a break back next game.
The pendulum, unfortunately, swung again as Svitolina wasted no time in getting her advantage back with a second break of serve. Consecutive holds over the next two games were followed by Svitolina needing two set-points to wrap up the opening set.
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The script was very similar in the second. The two players held their served over the first four games of the set before trading breaks to get back the parity again. Svitolina did have her chances to consolidate that break she had but creeping unforced errors ensured they went into the seventh game at 3-3.
However, much like in the first set, Svitolina quickly put the grief of losing her advantage behind her and broke right back to love in the next game. And while Konta fought hard following that, Svitolina ensured there was no looking back and completed the match, winning in straight sets.
In the final analysis it was easy to say that Konta’s unforced errors caused her the most problems, finishing with a whopping 35 of them to just 13 off the racquet of her opponent.
Svitolina will now take on the winner of the match between Serena Williams and Wang Qiang.
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