Daria Gavrilova will be out to reverse her fortunes and keep Australia alive in their Fed Cup tie against the Ukraine but standing in her way will be world No.13 Elina Svitolina. Join The Roar for live scores of the third rubber from 9pm (AEDT).
Gavrilova comes into the second day of the tie having lost in surprising circumstances to Lesia Tsurenko yesterday, making unforced errors by the bucketload.
She struggled to gain any sense of rhythm of consistency throughout the match and despite grabbing a few breaks of serve, never had the upper hand, eventually going down in a straight sets 6-2, 6-3 loss.
It simply wasn’t good enough from Gavrilova, who had to win that rubber for Australia to realistically have a chance of winning the tie. As the frustration built, so did the errors, Gavrilova ending up making 38 unforced in just an hour and 15 minutes.
Unfortunately for Gavrilova, today’s match-up isn’t making the best of reading for her either. She struggles dealing with big power players and while Svitolina isn’t noted as one, the court suits that style of play and she will try to replicate what she did to Ashleigh Barty in the second rubber.
After being blown off the court by Barty’s power and variation in the first set, Svitolina changed her gameplan and took the front foot, attacking at every opportunity to send the Ukraine ahead 2-0 with a 4-6, 6-1, 6-2 win.
She barely dropped a point in the last two sets, and even though her usual style is similar to Gavrilova’s she has been beaten by the Australian trying to play that before.
Instead she needs to play exactly the way she finished yesterday, going on the attack and rattling Gavrilova from the start of the match.
For Gavrilova to win, it’s going to be about keeping the errors down and waiting for mistakes. Unlike Svitolina, she is yet to show she has another gear in terms of attack and after being rattled yesterday, a similar fate probably awaits her today if Svitolina gets off to any sort of start.
Prediction
Svitolina was in fine form in yesterday’s match against Barty and while Gavrilova will have superior court movement and is a different style of player, it’s hard to see the world No.13 not handing Ukraine the 3-0 win in the tie.
Svitolina in three sets.
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