Twelve months ago, Elina Svitolina, while on maternity leave from the tour, served as chair umpire during Iga Swiatek’s charity match for Ukraine. Eight months ago, she had the baby. Three months ago, she returned to the tour. She is only playing Wimbledon because she got a wild card, and on Tuesday she beat the world No.1 to make it to the semi-finals.
Right now, many around the world would be looking to hire Elina Svitolina’s script-writer, for this turn of events has a rather magical feel to it.
Svitolina knows it too. Moments after beating Iga Swiatek 7-5, 6-7 (5), 6-2 in 2 hours 51 minutes, the Ukrainian first spoke of how she would celebrate her win with ‘a beer’ but then she quickly put it all in perspective.
“At the beginning of the tournament, if someone told me I would make it to the semi-final and beat the world No.1, I would say they are just crazy,” said the 28-year-old.
But she is there now and playing the kind of tennis that once helped her rise to No.3 in the WTA rankings. Along the way, she has beaten not just Swiatek but a host of former Grand Slam champions too — Victoria Azarenka (R16), Sofia Kenin (3rd Round) and Venus Williams (1st round).
She has done it by playing in the style that saw her reach the semifinals at Wimbledon and the U.S. Open in 2019. On evidence of what we have seen here, Svitolina remains one of the best movers on the circuit and a dangerous counterpuncher.
Against Swiatek, the counter-punching was a must. This isn’t the young Pole’s best surface, but once she starts unleashing the big forehands, you need something special to keep getting it back across the net. And Svitolina’s found that.
It didn’t seem like that when she made a rather nervous start to the match. Swiatek got the early break, and given how she likes to deal out bagels and breadsticks, there was the feeling that she might run away with the set.
But Svitolina got stuck in, showing the determination that has seen her make such a solid return to the tour. Then, she finally got things back on level at 5-5 in the first set.
Swiatek’s second serve had been under pressure all through the set but at this point, Svitolina took things up a gear. Suddenly, the Pole couldn’t win a point and the Ukrainian won 16 of the last 18 points to take the first set 7-5 in 57 minutes.
That is when the rain started coming down and the break seemed to help Swiatek gather her thoughts a bit. Svitolina’s helped a bit too — at 1-1, leading 40-0, she sent an easy volley into the net, then committed a double fault, following it up with another double fault later in the game.
It gave the Pole a break and a chance to find her game. She won three games in a row before Svitolina came back to make it 3-3. Swiatek was unable to get away.
It stayed that way until the tiebreak, where Svitolina had a 4-1 lead before she stuttered. Maybe it was the nerves. Maybe it was Swiatek. Either way, the second set was lost.
Into the third and into the space where nerves matter almost as much as the tennis. This is when Svitolina came into her own to get a double break and crush Swiatek’s spirit before things could become truly chaotic.
Svitolina hasn’t just returned to the tour. She has come in wanting to be even better than she was before. With that in mind, she has rung in the changes — racquet, strings and members of her team.
And it might be fair to say that the changes are working pretty well. She has become only the fifth wild card to reach a major semi-final in women’s singles in the Open Era, after Jie Zheng (Wimbledon 2008), Kim Clijsters (US Open 2009), Justine Henin (Australian Open 2010) and Sabine Lisicki (Wimbledon 2011).
Perhaps the fact that she is playing for much more than herself is helping too. She has highlighted the Ukrainian cause at every available opportunity and clearly realises that her run is about so much more than tennis.
