Svitolina ousts Ivanovic from French Open

Ukrainian Elina Svitolina reached the fourth round of the French Open tennis tournament with a straight set win over former champion Ana Ivanovic here on Saturday.

In seven previous meetings, including two at the French Open, Svitolina had taken just one set from the 16th ranked Ivanovic, but she turned the tables in impressive fashion to triumph, 6-4, 6-4.

"I think it was better mentality than other matches before, the other seven matches," Svitolina said after winning on Court 1.

"And the game, I was really confident today. I don't know. Just everything was right. Today I was doing right things. Even missing bad shots, I was trying to stay positive and to play my tennis."

"I think it was working really well today, and I was really happy that I could stay in such a high level against her, and still having in my mind that I'm 0-7 down. And it was tough, but I'm really happy that I could finish the match in two sets," the World No. 20 added.

The 18th seed capitalised on a couple of forehand errors from Ivanovic to close out the first set, then turned the screws by building a 4-1 lead in the second set.

Ivanovic drew level but faltered on serve once again, allowing Svitolina to advance to the fourth round.

--IANS

sam/bg