Frenchwoman Clara Burel (43rd player in the world) eliminated defending champion Elina Svitolina (17th) 7-6 (7/1), 4-6, 6-1 on Wednesday in the round of 16 of the WTA 500 tournament in Strasbourg.
After 2 hours 15 minutes of play, the 23-year-old player defeated the Ukrainian, victorious last year and in 2020 on the Strasbourg clay court.
Burel will face in the next round the winner of the match between the American Danielle Collins, 12th in the WTA rankings who won the WTA 1000 tournaments in Miami and Charleston at the beginning of the spring, and the Czech Katerina Siniakova (34th). ).
In the previous round, the Frenchwoman, who has never been so high in the WTA rankings, had already eliminated a big name in women’s tennis, the Czech Karolina Pliskova, former world No.1 now 52nd.
On Wednesday against the experienced Ukrainian, she struggled in the first set, where she managed the break at 5-3 service to follow before seeing her opponent catch up and force her into a tie-break, the Frenchwoman largely dominated after almost an hour of fighting.
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After losing the second set and the first game of the third, Rennaise managed to inflict six consecutive winning games on Svitolina to finish the third set in just over 30 minutes, and validate her passage to the quarter-final on clay. of the Alsatian tournament.