Elina SVITOLINA: “I can play the whole clay season. I have no expectations”

Ukrainian tennis player Elina Svitolina talked about her return to sports after the birth of a child. The athlete plans to return to the tournament in Charleston in April.

“I followed almost no results. I haven’t followed tennis Twitter or Instagram for five months. Some news flashed, but there was no desire to delve into what happened on the tour. I had other priorities: my health, my mental state, I was 100% included in my fund. It was important for me to take a mental break from tennis because it requires a lot of energy and not that much to watch (laughs). True, I watched very few, probably only four, games as Gael was injured and didn’t play most of the time. Now, I feel like this vacation without tennis really helped me get back, because at the beginning of January I ran straight to practice.”

“Our initial idea was to play at Wimbledon, but when we saw that my training form was good enough, we started thinking about Roland Garros and the tournaments before that. For example, Rome. Yes, at some point we started to think that Rome would be the first tournament.”

“When I started playing with some girls, I felt like I was already at 80% of my good mood. That’s when we decided that since I’m going to be playing on dirt, I’d train long enough, it might be a good idea to start with Charleston since it’s the first dirt tournament. So I can play the whole clay season. because my fitness in terms of training is at a very good level. I have no expectations of myself anymore, ”said Svitolina.