Elina Svitolina

Elina Mykhailivna Svitolina (Еліна Михайлівна Світоліна, ; born 12 September 1994) is a Ukrainian professional tennis player.

She reached career-high rankings of world No. 3 in singles and 108 in doubles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA).

Svitolina's greatest achievement as a junior was winning the French Open girls event in 2010, beating Tunisian Ons Jabeur in the final.

She reached her first professional singles final at the $25k tournament in Kharkiv in May 2010.

Svitolina also reached the final of the girls' singles event at the 2012 Wimbledon Championships, where she lost to Eugenie Bouchard.

Svitolina qualified for the US Open.

She was defeated in the first round by 12th seed and eventual quarterfinalist Ana Ivanovic.

She won the WTA 125 Royal Indian Open title in Pune, defeating Andreja Klepač, Rutuja Bhosale, Luksika Kumkhum, former top-10 player Andrea Petkovic, and Japanese veteran Kimiko Date-Krumm in the final.

Svitolina gained direct entry into the Australian Open, where she was defeated by fifth seed Angelique Kerber in the first round.

She won her first WTA title at the Baku Cup by beating Shahar Pe'er; in doing so, Svitolina became the first teenager to win a WTA tournament since February 2012.

Svitolina first broke into the world's top 50 in July 2013, reached the top 20 in June 2015, and then the top 10 in May 2017, making her the first Ukrainian woman to reach the top 10 in rankings after surpassing compatriot Alona Bondarenko.

After winning her first WTA Tour title in 2013, she won five additional titles until 2017, during which she won five titles that same year to propel her into the top 10.

The victory led to a jump of 32 spots in the WTA rankings, landing her at No. 49 on 29 July 2013.

At the Australian Open, Svitolina defeated two-time Grand Slam champion and three-time Australian Open quarterfinalist Svetlana Kuznetsova in the opening round in straight sets.

She went on to reach the third round, losing to Sloane Stephens in straight sets.

After defending her Baku Cup title by beating Bojana Jovanovski in the final, Svitolina played at the Western & Southern Open where she recorded the first top-ten victory of her career, defeating recently crowned Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitová in the second round.

She proceeded to reach her first quarterfinal at Premier-5 level, eventually losing to Ana Ivanovic in straight sets.

Svitolina reached her first Premier-5 semifinal in the first edition of the WTA tournament in Wuhan, defeating Camila Giorgi, Sabine Lisicki, Garbiñe Muguruza via walkover, and Angelique Kerber before losing to Petra Kvitová in the semifinals.

She began the new season at the Brisbane International where she reached the semifinals before losing to eventual champion Maria Sharapova.

At the Australian Open, Svitolina reached the third round, and won the first set against world No. 1 and eventual champion, Serena Williams, before losing in three sets.

She has also won two titles in doubles, both at the İstanbul Cup, in 2014 and 2015.

Svitolina has won 17 WTA Tour singles titles, including the 2018 WTA Finals, and has reached three major singles semifinals.

Among her titles are the 2018 WTA Finals and three Premier 5-level tournaments: the Dubai Tennis Championships, the Italian Open, and the Canadian Open.

Svitolina produced her best performances at the majors in 2019, reaching two semifinals at Wimbledon and the US Open.

In 2021, Svitolina won the Olympic bronze medal in the women's singles tournament at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and became the first Olympian to win a medal in tennis for Ukraine.

In 2022, Svitolina took a break from professional tennis to give birth to her first child.

She made a strong comeback upon her return to competition in 2023, winning a WTA Tour title and reaching the French Open quarterfinals and the Wimbledon semifinals (beating world No. 1 Iga Świątek in the latter) in her first few tournaments back.

Svitolina was born in Odesa to Ukrainian parents, Mikhaylo Svitolin (a former wrestler) and Olena Svitolina (a former competitive rower).

She has a Jewish grandmother.

She was named after the famous Soviet actress Elina Bystritskaya.

She has an older brother, Yulian.

As a child, she noticed that her brother was getting a lot of attention for playing tennis.

This inspired her to take up the sport to regain some of her father's attention.

She started playing at age five.

Svitolina and her family moved to Kharkiv, Ukraine, when she was 13, after businessman Yuriy Sapronov became her sponsor.

Sapronov had seen her play at one of his children's tournaments when she was 12 and was impressed, leading to his investment in her training and further professional development.

Svitolina officially still resides in Kharkiv but trains abroad, which limits her presence in Odesa and/or Kharkiv, and also has a residence in London.

She has said that in her early career she turned down offers to change her citizenship in exchange for "large financial sums".

Svitolina has been actively learning the Ukrainian and French languages since the COVID-19 quarantine at the 2021 Australian Open.

In January 2022, she promised, in an interview with Dmitry Gordon, to master the Ukrainian language.