By Pritha Sarkar
LONDON (Reuters) – It turned out to be the mother of all battles and Victoria Azarenka produced some telling blows in an electrifying contest but in the end she lacked the chutzpah to prevent Elina Svitolina securing a place in the Wimbledon quarter-finals.
Sunday’s 2-6 6-4 7-6(11-9) win handed the Ukrainian wildcard a first win over Azarenka in a battle between the last two mums left standing out of the six who started in the singles draw as she snapped a five-match losing run against the Belarusian 19th seed.
After soaking up all the tension for close to three hours, world number 76 Svitolina finally toppled Azarenka with an ace on her second match point and promptly collapsed onto her back in her moment of triumph.
She will next face world number one Iga Swiatek for a place in the semi-finals.
(Reporting by Pritha Sarkar, editing by Ken Ferris)
