Coming back to the competition after giving a birth is never easy but Elina Svitolina is managing it like a queen.
Only a few players know how it feels to return to tennis after giving birth and that's due to multiple reasons. One of those is that, for obvious reasons, only players competing on the WTA Tour are capable of doing that, and another is that not many have the physical and mental capacities to return.
But one bright example of how can a mother succeed is surely Elina Svitolina. Very quickly after her comeback, she won the 2023 Strasbourg Open and her journey continues also at the 2023 Roland Garros where she met Anna Blinkova in the third round.
Despite playing well in the previous two matches, the Ukrainian had a really slow start to the match. She was broken three times in the opening set and despite recovering one of the breaks, her Russian opponent won the opening set 6-2.
But the second set was all about Svitolina. She broke all of her opponent's first three service games and built a big 5-0 lead. Although the Ukrainian lost one of those breaks, she comfortably won the second set 6-2 to force a decider.
The third set was a big battle. Svitolina led 3-1 with a break and also 5-4 with a break, but on both occasions, her opponent was able to break back. But when the Ukrainian broke for 6-5, she didn't miss and used her third match point to win the match 2-6, 6-2, 7-5, and advance to the fourth round of the 2023 Roland Garros.
After her victory in Strasbourg, Svitolina moved up by 316 places in the rankings and now she's set to make another significant move as her third-round victory secures at least an 80-place rise close to the Top 100. But despite the success, the Ukrainian admitted that she came to Paris without any expectations.
"I came here without expectations. Coming back after giving birth is extremely complicated I would say. But you know, I'm really motivated to go further. So it's going to be a matter of recovering and being ready for the next battle."
The crowd is helping Svitolina along the way and after the match, she admitted that the Roland Garros was the tournament that she used to watch as a child as it was the only streamed Grand Slam in her home country.
"I always loved playing here, always was watching when I was a child, Roland Garros in Ukraine, it was only Slam that was streamed. So it was always my dream to play at such an amazing tournament in front of so many people. I’m really pleased to have a chance to play again here."
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