Exclusive: ‘Mentally stronger’ Elina Svitolina says she feels ‘a different person’ after making Wimbledon semi-finals

Svitolina gave birth to her first child last October and only returned to the tour in April.

In her first Grand Slam back she made the French Open quarter-finals and she has gone even better at Wimbledon by reaching the last four.

It is the second time she has reached the Wimbledon semi-finals after also doing so in 2019.

In an exclusive interview with Eurosport, Svitolina was asked how she compares now as a player to a few years ago.

“I feel like I’m a different person right now,” she said.

“I want to bring something new to my game. I feel mentally much stronger and I am taking even some tough moments even a bit easier.

“I put less pressure on myself, of course I want to do my best, but somehow I have this new energy and I try to build on that.”

Svitolina showed remarkable resolve to beat world No. 1 Swiatek.

She fought back from a break down in the first and second sets, and recovered to win the third set after letting a 4-1 lead in the second-set tie-breaker.

“I didn’t do much wrong in that tie-breaker,” she reflected.

“I was 4-1 up and it was painful to lose it but Iga played unbelievable from that moment and I had to stay in the match and bring up the good energy and try to push again.

“In the end I could break again and this gave me a lot of energy and confidence.”

Svitolina will next face Marketa Vondrousova after she beat fourth seed Jessica Pegula in three sets.

Svitolina leads the head-to-head 3-2 but won just four games when they last met in the semi-finals of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

“It’s going to be different,” said Svitolina.

“Now I have the day off, I want to recover and prepare with my coach tactically because she is a tricky player.

“I played her in the semi-finals of the Olympics, I remember that very well, and I will try to learn from that match because I didn’t play well from the beginning so I will do my best and prepare well for that one.”

Asked in her press conference what her quarter-final win meant for Ukraine, Svitolina said: “It means definitely a lot.

“I know that lots of people back in Ukraine were watching. I got really a massive amount of messages from last round. I didn’t really check my phone yet today, but I think there will be a lot of messages, a lot of news.

“I’m happy I can bring little happiness to their life. There was many videos also on the internet where the kids are watching on their phones. This really makes my heart melt seeing this.

“Just happy I could bring little happiness to people of Ukraine.”

The two remaining women’s quarter-finals take place on Wednesday, July 12 as Aryna Sabalenka faces Madison Keys and Ons Jabeur takes on defending champion Elena Rybakina in a rematch of last year’s final.

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