Svitolina Fights Back From a Set Down to Beat Muchova at WTA Finals

Elina Svitolina beat Karolina Muchova 3-6 6-2 6-2 at the WTA Finals, the season-ending event for the world's leading women, and kept her semi-final hopes alive. BBC Sport

Muchova won the first set 6-3, and Svitolina was not happy with how she had started. She had already lost her opening group match 6-4 6-0 to Mirra Andreeva, so a second defeat would have made the path to the last four very hard.

After losing the first set, Svitolina called a medical timeout for a right hip injury. A medical timeout is a short break in which a player can receive treatment. She came back on court and took the next two sets, 6-2 and 6-2.

Svitolina said she had been cross with herself. "I was really angry at myself after the first match and the first set," she said. She described how she channelled that feeling: "I tried to direct my anger towards the ball and I found my game in the end."

The numbers from the match help explain the turn. Muchova made 39 unforced errors, which are shots that miss without an opponent forcing them. Svitolina kept the ball in play and waited for her chances, and the mistakes started to pile up on the other side of the net.

The win was Svitolina's ninth over a player ranked in the world's top 10 this year. It was also her first win at the WTA Finals since she lifted the title in 2019. For a player who has spent much of the season trading wins and losses against the very best, that is a useful result to carry into her remaining matches.

For fans, the lesson is simple. A player who loses the first set can still turn a match around, but only if she finds a way to stop thinking about the last point and start playing the next one. Svitolina did that in front of a home-free crowd of tennis watchers, and the scoreline shows how completely the match swung after the first set.