Tennis: Second seed Svitolina squeezes past Alexandrova in third set tie-break

Second seed Elina Svitolina of Ukraine was pushed to the edge of defeat before reaching the Abu Dhabi Open quarter-finals on Sunday, just squeezing past the 17th seed, Russia's Ekaterina Alexandrova, 6-2, 6-7, 7-6. Svitolina needed to come back from 3-5 down in the final set and had to save two match points during the final set tiebreak before clinching victory after two hours and 25 minutes of high-quality tennis from both players. The contest was a rematch of their third-round match at Roland Garros from last year, which Svitolina won in straight sets. In the last eight Svitolina will next take on a third successive Russian opponent - Veronika Kudermetova, who got past Spain's Paula Badosa in three sets earlier on Sunday.