(Provided by Tennis World USA)
Elina Svitolina admitted it wasn’t easy playing against Iga Swiatek because she considers the Pole a good friend and a great person. On Tuesday, former world No 3 Svitolina pulled off her biggest win since returning as she upset top-seeded Swiatek 7-5 6-7 (5) 6-2 to reach the Wimbledon semifinal.
When Svitolina was sidelined last year and expecting her first baby, Swiatek organized a charity event for Ukraine in Poland. “It was a much tougher game I would say because she’s a great person, she’s a big champion. She has done so much, and doing still so much for Ukraine.
We really admire her in Ukraine. In the way when you’re playing your good buddy, it’s tough because you don’t want to see her/him losing. So in a way it’s like this. When I was away from tennis, I was really cheering for her, really happy with the results, really amazed with what she is doing.
It’s really remarkable. Yeah, I would say it was quite tough, to be fair,” Svitolina said.
Svitolina came up big against Swiatek
Before pregnancy, Svitolina had several notable Grand Slam runs that would end with a loss in the latter stage of a tournament.
Against world No 1 Swiatek, Svitolina missed out on a chance…
