Tennis players are lucky individuals in the world of sport, in the sense that if you have a poor tournament, like Elina Svitolina did at the Australian Open 2017 then, you get back on the circuit and have the chance to turn it around within a few weeks. Unlike gymnasts - who have much longer lengths of time between key events. 22 year old Ukrainian upstart, Svitolina looks to full advantage of this, when she chases down her fifth wta title against the skillful Shuai Peng in Taipei tomorrow.
Building towards a Grand Slam
Svitolina is still struggling for consistency at the dawn of the 2017 ladies tennis season, as a topsy-turvy, back-and-forth serve-breaking quarter final victory over, the albeit tricky Tunisian Ons Jabeur, testifies in the current Taipei tournament.
On Paper this was mitigated by a straight sets semi-final trouncing of 31 year old Luxembourger, Mandy Minella, but Minella lacked range and made Svitolina look good. That said, as Svitolina begins to slow wind down her hardcourt tournament, hopefully, from her point of view with a victory in Taipei. She will be pleased with the way she has stuck in there in this tournament, going into the clay court season and the French Open 2017 - her best chance at pinching that first slam.
The Peng Test
The 31 year old, Chinese grafter: Shuai Peng is currently ranked 71 on the WTA, but that as is often the case does not tell the whole story. A crafted straight sets victory over Lucie Safarova in the semi-finals in this tournament testifies to that.
Unfortunately, for Peng, she is most remembered for her best and, at the same time, worst moment in tennis, in the 2014 US Open. Whereby, she surprised many people to make the semi-final against Wozniacki and, pulled up with injury forcing her to withdraw. We will never know what a fit Peng could have achieved at that tournament!
Peng leads the brief head-to-head between these two players 1-0, but that victory, albeit on hard court the same surface as Taipei, can be taken with a pinch of salt, as Svitolina is a more mature and established young player now.
