Ukrainian tennis player Elina Svitolina has made it to the Wimbledon semi-finals after entering the tournament as a wildcard, just 8 months after having a baby.
Svitolina stunned the tennis world on Wednesday when she beat World No.1 Iga Swiatek in the quarter-finals, 7-5, 6-7 (5), 6-2. Svitolina will now proceed to the semi-finals. It comes after she returned to tennis in April having given birth in October last year.
“At the beginning of the tournament, if someone would tell me that I will be in the semi-final and beating world number one, I would just say that they’re crazy,” she said.
After the win, she acknowledged the devastation of the war in her home country of Ukraine, and how it had made her a stronger and better player.
“I think war made me stronger and also made me mentally stronger,” she said after the win. “Mentally I don’t take difficult situations as like a disaster, you know? There are worse things in life.”
Svitolina also said having her child has made her calmer and a “different person”.
“I’m just calmer,” she said. “I think also, because I just started to play again, I have different pressures.”
“I have this motivation, like huge motivation, to come back to the top. But I think having a child, and war, made me a different person. I look at things a bit differently.”
On her quarter-final opponent Iga Swiatek, Svitolina said: “Iga is not only a great champion, she’s also an unbelievable person. She was one of the first ones to help Ukrainian people and was a huge help for Ukraine, so for sure it’s not easy to play against someone that you share a lot of good moments with.”
During the French Open last month, Svitolina made headlines when she said she would not shake hands with players from Russia or Belarus amid the ongoing war in Ukraine.