With Svitolina, it’s all too often the case of one step forward, two steps back. At the end, it was a classic case of Svitolina playing passively, miles behind the baseline which Teichmann smartly exploited with the drop shot.
As she clawed back the deficit, game-by-game, she grew in confidence and went on the attack with some aggressive ballstriking.
The third set was close until Teichmann began making some wild unforced errors. Svitolina will be kicking herself about two of them as she failed to get the return back in play. Three of the match points were saved in stirring fashion by Teichmann. Teichmann rallied from a set and a break down and 1-5 down in the 3rd set, saving SIX match points to stun the number four seed, Svitolina. The only three set match of the day was a rather extraordinary one. Of the 16 matches on Thursday’s schedule, 15 were decided in straight sets. Read on for Thursday’s diary from Madrid with the focus on the only seeded upset of the day.
The Madrid draw is always one of the best with no byes and it certainly has delivered again with some of these first round match-ups. It does feel weird to be starting on a Thursday but I quite like how the matches will be more spaced out in the earlier rounds because it’s normally carnage at the start. Hola Madrid! The 2021 edition of the Mutua Madrid Open is the debut of the extended tournament with a Thursday main draw start.
