Elina Svitolina makes comeback official by winning 2023 Strasbourg

Elina Svitolina made her comeback official by beating Russian Anna Blinkova in the Strasbourg final 6-2 6-3 to lift her maiden trophy since becoming a mother.

The Ukranian played a really strong week of tennis but it was far from perfect. Her matches this week were quite competitive and she could have lost a few of them including the one in the semi-finals. Resilience carried her into the first final since giving birth last year and she wasn't going to lose to Russian in the final. The win was never really in doubt as she played her best match since coming back from injury.

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First set

The first set opened with Svitolina completely smashing Blinkova in the rallies taking an early lead and never letting go. It was 3-0 pretty quickly and while Blinkova pulled one break back, the Russian never managed to really find a really good rhythm. She lost her serve once more and Svitolian cruised 6-2.

Winning only 6 out of 20 points on her serve in the first set just shows how motivated and aggressive Svitolina was.

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Second set

The second set wasn't that much different in terms of how things well but Blinkova did put up a better fight. She still lost her serve in the first game of the second set. Blinkova would have break points in the second game but Svitolina held for the 2-0 lead and then broke again for the 3-0 lead. From there it was a rather simple cruise to a 6-3 finish.

It was just a fabulous performance from Svitolina, especially considering the circumstances. It meant a lot both due to her absence last year and the fact that her opponent was Russian. There were certainly plenty of cheers back home in Odesa and all around Ukraine after this one.

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