Ukrainian women’s tennis star Elina Svitolina lost to German Tatjana Maria in the first round at the Wimbledon tennis championship.
The match on July 2 lasted for 129 minutes and ended with the score of 6-7, 6-4, 1-6.
Svitolina ranks fifth in the Women’s Tennis Association ranking.
The Ukrainian started the first set badly, immediately dropping her serve. After six games, the German player led with a score of 1-5 but Svitolina then won five games in a row (6-5).
However, the German upped her game in the tie-break and the first set ended at 6-7 in Maria’s favor.
In the second set, Svitolina’s serve improved, but it was again broken in the fifth game (2-3). However, a series of aggressive returns allowed the Ukrainian to come back into the game, and she won three games in a row. She won the second set 6-4.
But the third set was a disaster for the Ukrainian: Maria at one point led 0-5 and the set ended 1-6.
The loss was Svitolina’s first this year to a player ranked outside the top 50.
Ukraine still has some in interest in the Wimbledon tournament, however: Two Ukrainian tennis players – Sergiy Stakhovsky and Lesia Tsurenko – have already won their first round matches.