ASB Classic: Elina Svitolina battles past Katie Boulter for quarterfinal spot

Elina Svitolina is happy to be back in the fighting spirit.

The 31-year-old world No 13 arrived in Auckland for this week’s ASB Classic, her first competitive tournament since opting to take a break in September last year. She ended the year with an exhibition appearance in Dubai but resumed tournament tennis in Auckland as she looked to build towards the Australian Open later this month.

And after a comfortable win in her first appearance, Svitolina was given a much sterner test by British counterpart Katie Boulter in her second.

While she again won in straight sets on Thursday, the 7-5 6-4 win in a shade over two hours saw the tournament’s top seed battling with a big-hitting opponent as well as having to adjust to the swirling wind.

“The win is a win. For me, every match I play is important and it’s nice to get back to the spirit of fighting; really fighting your way through the matches. It’s a good feeling to go through those matches with a win,” Svitolina said.

“I was very happy [with] the way I could fight and stay in the match even when I was not closing it with my serve. I think fighting spirit was major today.”

Boulter entered the tournament as a wildcard, and she stepped into the role perfectly.

At the end of 2024, the British player was ranked just outside of the top 20 in the world. However, a tough year on court and ending the year out with injury saw her ranking plummet outside the top 100 by the end of 2025.

Boulter was every part the dark horse in the draw, and Svitolina was up for the challenge.

At times, it became a battle between Svitolina’s defence and Boulter’s offence; the Brit looking to win points with big shots out wide while the Ukrainian showed patience to put the ball in play and set points up.

“It was really tough conditions. I feel like we didn’t play an ideal match but we fought today and it was a close match. It’s not easy, but both players have to adjust their game.”

It was a match that looked like it could be over quickly, too. After the Brit bolted out of the blocks to hold a 2-0 lead in the first set, Svitolina rattled off the next five games in a row.

But in a contest that had plenty of twists and turns, Boulter answered to level at 5-5 before Svitolina closed out the first set 7-5.

The second set saw Svitolina find a bit more of a rhythm with her first serve – all four of her aces in the match coming in the second set – but she was also able to back up her second serve, winning 56% of points off her second serve while Boulter could only win 37% of points off hers.

“It’s very difficult to go big on the serves when there’s a big wind and gusts. I was trying to adjust a little bit more to put a lot of first serves [in], different slice and kicks and sometimes flat ones – you have to adjust your game,” Svitolina said.

“For everybody it’s the same; who adjusts best wins.”

Earlier in the day, Polish fifth seed Magda Linette overcame Italian Elisabetta Cocciaretto in three sets 7-5 2-6 6-3, while Filipino fourth seed Alexandra Eala had a dominant straight sets win over Croatia’s Petra Marcinko 6-2 6-0.

The two will meet in the quarterfinals on Friday, while Svitolina will play against Brit Sonay Kartal, who beat Germany’s Ella Seidel 6-3 6-1 in the final match of the day.

Christopher Reive joined the Herald sports team in 2017, bringing the same versatility to his coverage as he does to his sports viewing habits.