Elina Svitolina beat Heather Watson 6-2 5-7 6-3 to earn her first-ever victory at the Aegon Classic and only her fifth career win on grass. Last year, the Ukrainian lost a tight match 5-7 6-4 5-7 to Carla Suarez-Navarro in round one, and she was thrashed by Marina Erakovic in 2013. But this time around, she produced a solid display to get her season on the English lawns off to a good start.

Svitolina credited a better mental approach for her improvement on grass. She said, “It feels amazing because I've been struggling a little bit on grass for the past few years. I like the way I played today, the way I handled the game and the tight moments.” The Ukrainian explained that her excellent results so far in 2017 also helped a lot. She said, “That made a big difference today. I have confidence with me and I was very happy that I could play my game in the tough moments. Even though I lost second set in very tough moments, I came back strong and didn't let the negative things get in my head.”

Svitolina also believes physical issues have contributed to her struggles on grass so far in her career (her win-loss record on the surface after this win is 5-10).  She said, “I don’t think I was strong enough physically (in the past), and everything just came together today. This year has been good for me, and I think it will also be much better on grass.”

She continued, “I tried to not do anything different. It's such a difficult surface to play on. Of course, there will be small adjustments, but I don't put this kind of pressure on myself. I still had some issues physically when I transitioned from clay courts, but it's normal. Everyone struggles a bit.”

In the opening set, Svitolina raced into a 2-0 lead after Watson gifted her a break with a string of errors. Then the Ukrainian wasted 40-0 in her next service game by producing five consecutive unforced errors to gift the Briton the break back. Good serving and an excellent drop shot from Watson put her in a strong position to level the score, but a powerful forehand from Svitolina earned her a third break point of the game, and she took it when the Briton made a backhand error.

Watson tried her hardest to break back again in the next game, hitting three superb forehand winners and a drop shot, but Svitolina hit the ball hard and deep when it mattered to save two break points and open up a 4-1 lead. Amazingly, the Briton had four chances to break in the Ukrainian’s next service game, but a combination of good serves and some unforced errors from Watson enabled Svitolina to save all four, then a backhand winner and an ace finally clinched a crucial hold. The Briton was so distracted by her failure to break that she gifted her next service away to love and the first went to the Ukrainian 6-2.

After the unpredictable first set, the second followed a more routine pattern as both players served well to take the score to 5-5. Then Watson raised her game, hurrying Svitolina with deeper, more urgent groundstrokes to draw errors and earn deuce on the Ukrainian’s serve. She seized the break in style, hitting a stylish cross-court backhand winner to earn break point, then an even better cross-court forehand winner to clinch it. The Briton backed it up by serving well to seal the second set 7-5.

Both players again served well at the beginning of the deciding set, but it was Watson who cracked first. In the fourth game, she hit an excellent backhand winner down the line, before making a succession of errors to surrender a critical break and go 3-1 down. By contrast, Svitolina made no errors in that game and that was the difference. The Briton shrugged off her bad game and served well in her final two service games, but by then it was too late because the Ukrainian was determined not to give her any chance of breaking back and won the final set 6-3.

Svitolina will play either Natalia Vikhlyantseva or Camila Giorgi next, and she is expecting a tricky match whoever she faces. But she believes that doesn’t matter because she is ready for whatever challenges the grass court season throws at her. She said, “I take it as a challenge because for me the last few years haven't gone great on grass, but this time I spoke to my team and they told me, you are a much stronger player now.  I'm stronger mentally as well, so I try to put together all the things I’ve done well this year in all the tournaments I’ve won and the tough matches I’ve got through.”