By now, nearly two years after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, there is a familiar rhythm to Elina Svitolina’s days.
The missile attacks from Russia generally happen overnight, so in the morning, just after she opens her eyes, she grabs her phone to see where the bombs have fallen. There is a call to her grandmother in Odessa. No matter how many times Svitolina has asked, her grandmother has refused to leave her home and her cat.
There is time with her 15-month-old daughter, Skai. There are many hours of training. There are phone calls related to her own business, and many more related to fundraising and relief efforts for Ukraine, through her work with United24, Ukraine’s main war relief fundraising organization, the one her country’s president called to request her help with. Sometimes these stretch into the night and don’t finish until after she has put Skai to bed and had dinner with her husband, the French tennis player Gael Monfils.
It’s a lot, and yet Svitolina, the comeback player of the year in women’s tennis in 2023, insists she is lucky. She has her parents and her in-laws helping with Skai, and many others helping with the relief efforts and her other pursuits. And then there are all the soldiers, people she grew up with, doing the really hard…
