National Bank Open: Danielle Collins Stuns Elina Svitolina to teach second round

Elina Svitolina started well but fell apart later on as Danielle Collins soared to a huge win in straight sets in Montreal.

This Canadian Open round-one matchup was supposed to be an epic one that would deliver some great tennis. We had some great moments, but it fell way short of an actual epic tennis match. Elina Svitolina has been in top form lately, playing some very good tennis, but today wasn’t it. Not even remotely close.

Oddly enough, Svitolina started well. She created problems for Collins and had break chances, but she didn’t use them, and as soon as the American broke her serve, Svitolina crumbled. It was an odd match, as we’ve seen her battle hard in most of her matches, but today she was simply overwhelmed.

Collins had the advantage of having played a few matches already in Montreal, having had to play the qualifiers, but this was her cleanest match by far. She was hitting the ball well and found some good angles to push her opponent around.

Collins mostly won the match because she played the crucial rallies better, especially at the start of the match which kind of set the tone. Had the Ukrainian broken early, it’s pretty obvious that the match would have gone quite differently.

Such are the ways of tennis and this time around, it was Collins who had everything going her way. The final score ended up being 6-2, 6-2 for the American, who, according to the draw, will face Maria Sakkari in the next round.

Now that’s a stellar matchup considering the recent resurgence of Sakkari, who made it to the Citi Open final but lost to Coco Gauff. All in all, a great signature win for Collins who seems healthy and back to playing her type of tennis.