"Sometimes you have to push yourself to play your best tennis," admits Svitolina after advancing to the third round in Montreal

Elina Svitolina kicked off her WTA 1000 tournament in Montreal with a win against Kamilla Rakhimova (7-5, 6-2). However, the Ukrainian, ranked 13th in the world, had a brief scare in the first set when she led 5-1 with a double break before the Russian fought back to 5-5.

But in the end, Svitolina weathered the storm and secured her victory in straight sets. The former world No. 3 will now face another Russian player, Anna Kalinskaya, in the round of 16. After her win, Svitolina reflected on her performance.

"Of course, the ace on match point was a nice way to finish for me. It was a good match. It’s never easy to start a tournament against an opponent who came through qualifying.

She already had a few matches under her belt here, whereas this was my first. So I had to adjust to the conditions and everything else. But I’m very happy with today’s win. I try to find my game in every match.

It’s never easy—sometimes you have to push yourself to play your best tennis. Today, I just tried to focus on what I could control and play as well as possible to win the match," she told Tribuna.