Svitolina routs Noskova to take her revenge and set up WTA Finals final against Andreeva
Two months after losing to Linda Noskova in the Billie Jean King Cup final, Elina Svitolina beat the Czech 6-2, 6-0 in 64 minutes in Indian Wells to reach her third WTA Finals final. The 2018 champion will face Mirra Andreeva, who beat her 6-4, 6-0 in the group stage.
Elina Svitolina, WTA Finals 2026 | © Gregory Bull/SIPA
Elina Svitolina has taken cold revenge, and earned a shot at a second WTA Finals title, on Saturday in California. Two months after losing to Linda Noskova in the Billie Jean King Cup final in Shenzhen, the Ukrainian swept the Czech aside 6-2, 6-0 in 64 minutes in the second semi-final in Indian Wells, closing out the match with a love break.
On Sunday, the 2018 champion will face Mirra Andreeva, who beat her 6-4, 6-0 in their opening group match and has not dropped a set all week. As she has done with every Russian and Belarusian player since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Svitolina is not expected to shake hands with the Russian at the end of the final.
Noskova tightens up, everything goes Svitolina’s way
Noskova made the better start, breaking in the opening game on her third break point. But the Czech tightened up as soon as she served to consolidate, losing her serve straight away, and never found again, for any length of time, the relaxed attacking tennis that has carried her season all the way to a Wimbledon title.
Everything went Svitolina’s way from then on. From 2-2, the Ukrainian won the last ten games of the match. She broke for 4-2, saved a break point to hold for 5-2, then converted her third set point on Noskova’s serve. In the second set, she broke twice more for 4-0, before breaking to love to seal her place in the final. In all, she dropped just two games against a player who had beaten her in three of their four previous meetings.
The numbers tell the story of Noskova’s evening: 11 double faults, only 40% of first serves in and 7 of 30 points won behind her second serve. She won just two of her seven service games, while Svitolina converted five of her 11 break points and hit 20 winners to 18 unforced errors, against 12 and 27 for the Czech.
A third final, seven years after the last
Svitolina, the sixth seed and the only former champion left in the draw, reaches her third WTA Finals final, after her title in 2018 and her defeat to Ashleigh Barty in 2019. Her week started with a defeat to Andreeva, before she came back to beat Karolina Muchova and a fragile Aryna Sabalenka in three sets.
Noskova, the Wimbledon champion, ends her first WTA Finals in the semi-finals after topping Group 1. She still leads their head-to-head 3-2.
