Fruhvirtova drops just two games en route to thrashing Svitolina at Birmingham Classic

Elina Svitolina seemingly isn't having the same spell on grass as she did on her clay court return losing out with ease to Czech prodigy, Linda Fruhvirtova on the grass courts of Birmingham Classic on Monday afternoon.

Fruhvirtova, the 18-year-old Czech who many see as part of the latest crop of rising talents who will soon break through won her first title in Chennai last year but has not had the same run in 2023.

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She snapped a four match losing streak in defeating the former Wimbledon semi-finalist who was playing in her first grass match since 2021 after returning from maternity leave in April.

She cut her ranking from 508 to 73 in the past month after winning her 17th career title in Strasbourg, but was easily beaten by the 18-year-old 6-2, 6-0.

Now she will play Bernarda Pera who like Svitolina showed prowess in the clay court season and saw off Marie Bouzkova 6-4, 7-6.

For Svitolina, it is now back to the drawing board after 22 unforced errors against a player with only four previous professional matches on the surface.

She reached the Wimbledon girls' semi-finals though and excelled as a junior so could be one to watch on the surface heading into Wimbledon.

"I don't think I was even the favourite in the match, because Elina played so unbelievable in the last few months," said Fruhvirtova afterwards.

"I had my first hit on grass this year on Saturday, so I was a little nervous about how it was going to go. But I have great memories of the British grass from juniors, so I was really looking forward to coming here."

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