Ukraine's top-ranked player Svitolina reaches Roland Garros final
Ukrainian tennis player Elina Svitolina has defeated ninth seed Darya Kasatkina, from Russia, who claims neutrality in the fourth round of the French Open tennis cup. This victory was Svitolina's ninth at the tournament.
This is stated on the tournament’s official page.
For Elina Svitolina herself, the victory came as a pleasant surprise since she did not expect to get this far in this tournament, as she has only recently become a mother.
"I definitely wasn’t dreaming about this when giving birth in October last year. It’s unbelievable for me to be able to compete here and go all way to the quarter-finals. It’s a really special feeling. Hopefully I can push even further. I’m really motivated to give my everything for the next matches," said the tennis player after her victory.
The first set began with a winning position for the Ukrainian and gave her a 4:1 lead. Subsequently, her opponent tried to level the situation and brought the score to 5:4. Afterwards, the Ukrainian tennis star Elina Svitolina came to serve and closed it out with the first set ball 6:4.
In the second set, the Russian sought to take the initiative and managed to break with a score of 2:0 in her favor. However, the Ukrainian quickly recovered and was able to demonstrate a great game, winning five of the next six games with a final score of 5:3.
However, the counterparts continued to play evenly with the score 5:5 and 6:6.
The outcome of the second set was determined in the tiebreaker, and Elina won 7:5, after realising her second match ball.
For the fourth time in her career, Svitolina reached the French Open quarterfinals, her best result at the tournament. Svitolina will return to the top 100 in the world rankings. According to the results of Roland Garros, she will be ranked in the top 75. Subsequently, Svitolina will meet world number two Aryna Sabalenka in the quarterfinals.
The French Open is the Roland Garros tennis championship. Since 1891, the tournament has been held annually in Paris for two weeks in late May and early June. In 2023, the prize pool is EUR 49.6 million.