Fresh off her second career victory at the Qatar Open, Elina Svitolina faces sixth seed Jessica Pegula in Tuesday's second round, seeking to upset a top-10 player.
Pegula, a three-time WTA 1000 champion and six-time tour titlist, has not played a singles match since her third-round exit at the Australian Open but seeks a fifth victory over her Ukrainian opponent on her return to the event after three years.
Match preview
© Imago
Svitolina went into Monday's first-round match-up with Marketa Vondrousova looking to snap a three-match losing sequence against the 2023 Wimbledon champion, having fallen to those defeats without winning a set.
That desire looked to be going awry after Vondrousova claimed the first set 6-0, but the 17-time WTA champion claimed the next two to seal a 0-6, 6-2, 7-5 triumph in one hour and 54 minutes.
That success, which also required coming back from an early break down in the deciding set, saw the 30-year-old player secure only her second-ever win in Doha – her previous victory in 2018 was also against Vondrousova – to move on from early exits in 2020 and three years ago and enter Tuesday's meeting with Pegula with a 2-5 career record at the event.
Having responded to exiting early in Linz following a commendable quarter-final run at the Aussie Open, it will be fascinating to see if Svitolina carries the confidence of ending a losing run against Monday's opponent to improve on her 5-2 win-loss record this season.
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On the other side of the net is Pegula, who may need to overcome some rustiness, having not played a competitive singles match since losing in straight sets to Olga Danilovic at Melbourne Park, though she (and teammate Ashlyn Krueger) got a run out in Monday's doubles loss to Mirra Andreeva and Diane Shnaider.
Defeat in the third round to the Serbian was disappointing for the American No. 2 player, who entered the opening major of 2025 after making the final in Adelaide before falling to countrywoman and eventual Aussie Open champion Madison Keys.
Despite missing the chance to secure a seventh tour title, the run to the final bade well for the 30-year-old's prospects in Melbourne, but Danilovic put paid to Pegula's hope of a deep run Down Under.
On her return to competitive singles action, the United States player aims to improve on her 5-2 record this year by getting the better of Svitolina for the fifth time on the women's tour to clinch a third career victory in Doha on her first participation since reaching the third round in 2022.
However, the American No. 2 fell to defeat the last time both women faced off at last year's Paris Olympics, albeit on the clay courts at Roland Garros.
Tournament so far
Elina Svitolina:
First round: vs. Marketa Vondrousova 0-6 6-2 7-5
Jessica Pegula:
First round: Bye
Head To Head
Olympics (2024) - Round of 32: Svitolina 4-6 6-1 6-3
US Open (2023) - Third round: Pegula 6-4 4-6 6-2
Washington DC (2023) - Quarter-finals: Pegula 4-6 6-3 6-4
Indian Wells (2021) - Round of 16: Pegula 6-1 6-1
Australian Open (2021) - Fourth round: Pegula 6-4 3-6 6-3
Abu Dhabi (2021) - Round of 64: Svitolina 6-4 6-3
Svitolina has lost four of six match-ups with Pegula on the WTA Tour, even though her two victories have book-ended their six meetings, highlighted by the 2021 success in Abu Dhabi and triumph in their most recent tussle at the Paris Olympics.
Beating Pegula at the Games snapped a four-match losing run against the American player, with all four defeats coming on hard courts; however, three of those disappointments went the distance.
Svitolina enters Tuesday's match with a 40-52 career record against top-10 players, losing seven of her previous 10 against the elite, even if the Ukrainian star ended a three-match losing run against such opponents with her Aussie Open success over Jasmine Paolini.
We say: Pegula to win in three sets
While Svitolina's match experience since the Aussie Open gives her the physical edge over Pegula, the American player securing four of their five previous hard-court meetings means we back the six-time tour winner to edge the four-time WTA 1000 champion in another three-setter.
