Linda Fruhvirtova draws on juniors experience to down popular WTA veteran in Birmingham
In the opening round of the Rothesay Classic in Birmingham, wildcard Elina Svitolina’s comeback to grass was halted by rising star Linda Fruhvirtova, who triumphed resoundingly 6-2, 6-0.
The 18-year-old Czech broke her four-match losing run in impressive fashion, defeating Svitolina in only 52 minutes to advance to the second round and face No 6 seed Bernarda Pera.
Svitolina won her 17th career championship in Strasbourg and advanced to the quarterfinals of Roland Garros after returning from maternity leave in April. As a result of her absence from the sport, she had dropped to No 508 but her hot run has seen her return to No 73 in the rankings during the last month. However, in her first match on grass since 2021, she was unable to replicate her clay-court performances.
Fruhvirtova has stepped up to the senior tour well but that does mean her opportunities on grass have been limited, although she says that positive results during the swing as a junior gave her something to draw on during the match and it showed in her confident approach.
Fruhvirtova put up a strong performance highlighted by her precise lobs in the second set, meanwhile Svitolina made 22 unforced errors and regularly missed out on her closing shots.
The No 57-ranked Fruhvirtova’s match was her first in the main draw of a tour-level grass tournament; of her four prior professional matches on the surface, just one had ended in victory. She did, however, have a fantastic junior grass career, taking home the Roehampton Grade A title in 2021 and making it to the Wimbledon girls’ semifinals the following week.
Fruhvirtova played like the veteran though with assured hitting and no hint of any sort of nerves despite the match representing a big monent in the young Czech’s career.
“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.”
The time for Fruhvirtova’s Round of 16 match against world no 27 Pera has not yet been fixed. The Croatian-born American remains at a career-high ranking after her run to the last 16 at the French Open.
READ MORE: WTA Rankings opportunity knocks for Aryna Sabalenka, cracking week for Katie Boulter