Svitolina comes out on top in blockbuster battle with Azarenka

Agency :
It turned out to be the mother of all battles and Victoria Azarenka produced some telling blows in an electrifying contest but in the end she lacked the chutzpah to prevent Elina Svitolina from securing a place in the Wimbledon quarter-finals.
Sunday’s 2-6 6-4 7-6(9) win handed the Ukrainian wildcard a first victory over Azarenka — the duo being the last two mums left standing out of the six who started in the singles draw — as she snapped a five-match losing run against the Belarusian.
After soaking up all the tension for close to three hours, world number 76 Svitolina finally toppled 19th seed Azarenka with an ace on her second match point and promptly collapsed onto her back in her moment of triumph.
“It’s really a shame that one of these players had to lose. They left it all on the court,” nine-time Wimbledon champion Martina Navratilova concluded while commentating.
Bizarrely, the crowd booed Azarenka as she left the court, obviously not realizing the reason why the Belarusian did not offer Svitolina the obligatory post match handshake.
Since Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine, Svitolina has stuck to her stance of not shaking hands with players from both countries.
“I thought it was a great tennis match. If people are going to be focusing only on handshakes or crowd, quite drunk crowd, booing in the end, that’s a shame,” said Azarenka.
There was nothing but roaring cheers for Svitolina, who summed up her achievement by saying: “After giving birth to our daughter, this is the second happiest moment in my life.”
Svitolina frustrated Azarenka for over 11 minutes in the fourth game of the match which dragged on for five deuces, with the Ukrainian missing a break point chance in the process.