Just three months after returning to action following maternity leave, Elina Svitolina earned her ticket to the Wimbledon semi-finals by beating favorite Iga Swiatek 7-5, 6-7(5) and 6-2 at central on Tuesday.
The 28-year-old Ukrainian gave birth to her daughter in October, and she was back on the WTA Tour in April. She received a bye to the main draw at the grass-court major a month after finding herself in the quarter-finals of the French Open.
Swiatek, who has won four major career titles, won the French Open last month. However, she took part in the quarter-finals at Wimbledon for the first time in her career.
“I’ll start with a beer,” Svitolina said in an on-court interview. At the start of the tournament, if someone had told me that I would end up in the semi-finals after beating the world number one, I would have called them crazy. »
At one point, Svitolina won 20 of 22 points against Swiatek, including 16 of the last 18 points in the first set.
“My forehand wasn’t perfect. I still have to polish it, Swiatek said, disappointed. Honestly, it’s hard for me to identify which aspect of my game was lacking today. Elina played very aggressively and she gave it her all on every shot. »
Svitolina will find herself in the semi-finals against Marketa Vondrousova. It will then be the Ukrainian’s second appearance in the semi-finals at Wimbledon, after losing to the subsequent champion, Romania’s Simona Halep, in 2019.
“I’m going to enjoy the evening and get treatments, a massage, which will be welcome, and then I’ll pull myself together and be ready for my next battle,” Svitolina said.
For her part, Vondrousova won five straight games in the final set to defeat fourth seed Jessica Pegula 6-4, 2-6, 6-4 to advance to the semi-finals.