It’s time to think about whether Elina Svitolina has become an even better tennis player because she had a child and did not play sports for a year to raise money to help her compatriots in Ukraine.
She says it is, and there’s no reason not to believe her.
Svitolina’s unlikely run at Wimbledon continued in a big way on Tuesday. Two days after Svitolina, a new mom who needed a wildcard to enter the tournament, defeated former world No. 1 Victoria Azarenka of Belarus in an emotional and dramatic triumph, Svitolina defeated current world No. 1 Iga Swiatek.
Svitolina, playing with courage, toughness, and a greater sense of purpose, was able to equalize the hard-hitting Swiatek shot for shot and then some on the sport’s holiest pitch, delighting the crowd that had followed her since her first shot in a tournament, that she had thought was over for her by now.
When the game was over, Svitolina put a hand in front of her face, hugged Swiatek from the other side of the net, and then raised her arms towards the crowd in disbelief.
“I don’t know what’s happening right now,” Svitolina told them a moment later.
Some things are difficult to explain.
Shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine 18 months ago, Svitolina announced she was taking a break from professional tennis because she is pregnant with her first child with her husband Gaël Monfils, the veteran touring professional and tennis actor from France may be.
Tennis wasn’t a priority back then anyway. Her pregnancy was high on the list, as was raising funds for war relief efforts in her home country. Her foundation has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars since the war began.
In October, she and Monfils announced the birth of their daughter Skai. Not long after, Svitolina began training and practicing for her return to the WTA Tour in March at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells.
Things didn’t go well at first, losing six of her first seven games, but Svitolina – a graceful and deceptively strong player who was ranked third in the world as recently as 2019 – slowly regained her feel for the ball and for the competition.
And she made it clear, particularly during the French Open in Paris, that tennis was no longer about money or ranking points. It was about bringing some joy to the people of Ukraine.
She did that in abundance as she advanced to the quarterfinals at Wimbledon. Still, she’d only made it past the second round twice in eight attempts there and hadn’t competed on grass since 2021 until last month. Her hopes were so low that she bought tickets to a Harry Styles concert last week, assuming she would be free.
That wasn’t the case, and following her win over Swiatek on Tuesday, she said she didn’t think she would take up the pop star’s offer to take her to a concert anytime soon.
“It was very nice of him,” she said of Styles’ offer. “Hopefully one day I can go.”
It will have to wait at least until after her semifinal match on Thursday against Marketa Vondrousova of the Czech Republic, who defeated Jessica Pegula of the US in three sets. A win over Vondrousova could well lead to a final showdown with a player from Belarus (Aryna Sabalenka) or Elena Rybakina, the defending champion who grew up in Russia but is representing Kazakhstan. Sabalenka and Rybakina will play their quarterfinals on Wednesday and are the clear favourites.
That’s still a matter of the future though, and would certainly create a similar tension as Svitolina’s fourth-round win over Azarenka. Players from Russia and Belarus were banned from participating in last year’s tournament, and although they received a warm welcome for the most part, Svitolina and the other players from Ukraine refused to shake hands with players from those countries.
Azarenka was booed off the field – unfairly, Svitolina said – after Svitolina beat her on Sunday, although Azarenka gave Svitolina a thumbs-up after the last point. Last year, Azarenka offered to take part in a charity event in favor of war aid, despite advice from her Ukrainian players. But the boos rained down anyway.
Swiatek, who hails from Poland and is an outspoken critic of the invasion, has contributed to wartime aid more than any non-Ukrainian player.
But there was no lack of healthy excitement in Tuesday’s game. Swiatek, a four-time Grand Slam tournament winner, seemed in control early on, even beating the first set 5-4. She then missed a series of timid and wild forehand and first serves. Svitolina shot consistently at tight barriers throughout the rest of the afternoon, topping the net by just inches.
She won 16 of the last 18 points in the first set. When the roof closed due to the rain en route, Swiatek panicked to the corner of the pitch and begged her team for answers.
“I felt like I was making almost the same mistakes,” said Swiatek. “I wanted a tip on what you think I should actually focus on. Sometimes when something isn’t working, it’s difficult to find a reason because there might be multiple reasons.”
The main reason of all was Svitolina, who later said that she played with a different kind of inspiration. She had spent parts of the last two days watching videos of her child in Ukraine watching their games on a phone. She knows what her victories mean and where they fit into the bigger picture of things.
All of this has power.
“The war made me stronger and also mentally stronger,” she said. “I don’t see difficult situations as disasters, you know? There are worse things in life. I’m just calmer.”
Don’t doubt: she’s dying to win, but her experience of the pressure has changed.
“I see things a little differently,” she said.
After leaving the place, she FaceTimed Monfils, who is – along with her mother and his – caring for their daughter at one of their homes. She said Skai didn’t talk to her much. She was distracted by a portion of ice cream.
Can she win this tournament and the biggest prize of all?
She insisted, as she did after the Azarenka match, that she was not destined to go that far. She won’t let her husband come because he hasn’t been here yet, and she doesn’t bother her routine now. Who needs him anyway when she has a different target and power, especially against the opponents from Russia and Belarus?
“Every time I play against them, it’s a big motivation, a big responsibility,” she said. “It’s very, very far at the moment. It seems very close, but it is very far away.”