CHICAGO – No.1 seed Elina Svitolina of Ukraine took home her first WTA singles title of the season by defeating No.9 seed Alize Cornet of France, 7-5, 6-4, to win the inaugural Chicago Women’s Open.
After two hours and two minutes of grinding tennis in the Illinois heat, World No.6 Svitolina emerged victorious and captured the 16th WTA singles title of her career. Svitolina has an outstanding 16-3 win-loss record in WTA singles finals.
Svitolina and 68th-ranked Cornet had a robust head-to-head coming into the clash, with Svitolina holding a slim 4-3 edge in their rivalry despite Cornet having won their last encounter, at 2019 Eastbourne.
But it was Svitolina who came out the winner this time around, as she returned to the winner’s circle for the first time since winning the clay-court event in Strasbourg nearly one year ago.
Cornet held three break points, but Svitolina batted each of the trio away and held on for 6-5, as Cornet started to struggle with her movement.
The Frenchwoman let a 40-15 lead slip in the next game, where Svitolina eventually broke for the one-set lead after over an hour by drawing an error with a forehand down the line.
After an off-court medical time-out to have her leg tended to, Cornet again fell behind 3-0 in the second set.
But Svitolina, who ended up a break three different times as the set progressed, was unable to hold her leads, including when she served for the match at 5-3.
But with an opportunity to break for the title, Svitolina finally took her chance. A forehand miscue by Cornet at 5-4 gave Svitolina her first championship point, which she converted with a superb backhand winner that landed square on the baseline.
Svitolina and Cornet both head on to the US Open next week, where they each have intriguing first-round clashes.
Svitolina, seeded No.5 in New York, will take on Canadian qualifier Rebecca Marino. Marino, who was in the Top 40 a decade ago, has had a resurgent 2021 after nearly five years off the tour.
Cornet will have her hands full against No.21 seed Ons Jabeur of Tunisia. Jabeur is having a career-best year, winning her first title in Birmingham, reaching the Wimbledon quarter-finals, and currently residing in the Top 10 of the Porsche Race to Shenzhen.
Elsewhere, Second-seeded Anett Kontaveit of Estonia delivered 25 winners while recording a 7-6 (5), 6-4 win over Irina-Camelia Begu of Romania to claim the title in Cleveland.
Kontaveit committed 15 unforced errors while notching her second career title. She prevailed in a first-set tiebreaker and then won three straight games early in the second set to take control.
Begu hit 27 winners but committed 25 unforced errors. Begu had five aces to Kontaveit’s two in a match that took one hour and 55 minutes.
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