Miami Open 2019: Wang pulls off stunning win against Svitolina in straight sets

Elina Svitolina's health and inconsistency were the ultimate causes of her downfall at the Miami Open Friday night. She couldn’t get up to speed at the start, allowing Yafan Wang to take the opening set swiftly. And the climb back was too much for the sixth seed who was eliminated with a 6-2, 6-4 loss on Grandstand Court at the Hard Rock Stadium.

It was the first top 10 victory for Wang, who implemented every aspect of her game perfectly to come out with the stunning result.

After her career-best semifinal finish at Indian Wells, the Ukrainian would have hoped to follow it up with a similar or better run at Miami. She was facing Wang for the first time but knew that the Chinese star recently handed Kristina Mladenovic a defeat, in the first round.

That was enough to take Wang seriously, and Svitolina knew she had to come out big and dictate from the first point.

But it was Wang who took the initiative, reaching triple break point at the start. Svitolina managed to reel in two, but couldn't save the third.

The World No. 5 found a way to get on the board in the third game with a hold to love, but the margin soon returned to two for Wang. She scored the second break of the set after forcing deuce and wasting two break points before finally sealing it.

The sixth seed broke back but the momentum was still in the hands of the Chinese star.

Before the seventh game, Svitolina called for the trainer but had to wait until after the game. She went down 2-5 before the physio showed up to have her knee tapped up again.

After the end of the medical timeout, the eighth game was a quick one that went to Wang as she sent Svitolina left and right to win the points she needed and take the set in 33 minutes.

During the set break, the physio was called out again to tape up Svitolina's knee but as the set began, she seemed to be a step slower. She somehow managed to force deuce and get to enough balls to stay in contention, but was undone by a fourth double fault.

She found a way to rally back and get another AD point, but Wang denied her a third time by catching her well out of position with the return. She ultimately did get the break, and seemed in pole position to close out the match.

Svitolina tried very hard in the third game to hold, but her first serve was struggling to get in shape. She gained AD point chances with help from Wang but many of them were wasted through errors of her own.

There was a fortunate moment came for Svitolina after the fifth break point, when Wang couldn’t get the ball over the net thus ending the longest game of the match. Wang then started to commit errors herself, which helped Svitolina convert a break point and even the score at 2-2.

There was then a third straight game for the sixth seed, who held back to back for the first time in the match. With the tables turning in favor of the Ukrainian, Wang took a conference with her coach on how to tune her offense back to its efficiency from the first set.

She managed to hold in the sixth game, but was still searching in vain for the break. They marched on through the next two games before the ninth game broke the match open.

After holding Svitolina to just one point in that game, the Chinese player served for the match where she easily reached triple match point. Svitolina saved one but a second was not meant to be as she saw a crosscourt winner hit the corner of the court to bring her run to an abrupt end after 1 hour and 22 minutes.

UPSET!Wang Yafan takes out No. 6 seed Svitolina in straight sets, 6-2, 6-4 at the @MiamiOpen. pic.twitter.com/xXHqWlXSO2

— WTA (@WTA) March 23, 2019

Having defeated two strong players already, Wang will go into the weekend looking to face either American’s Danielle Collins in the third round.