by Of all the various motives that drove the 256 singles players who entered the Australian Open, Elina Svitolina’s is undoubtedly the purest. Svitolina, the highest-profile Ukrainian in world sport, plays every match for the benefit of her beleaguered nation.
“The Ukrainian people gave me a lot of love and I want to give it back,” Svitolina told Telegraph Sport. “I want to share these moments with them and give them a little spark of something different, so that it’s not just about the war and the difficult situations they face.
“I have seen on social media that people have woken up because of the missile attack and have been watching my games on the subway or in bomb shelters at night, when I was playing at four or five in the afternoon. in the morning. “It’s a really sweet moment and I feel responsible for the happy moments in their lives.”
It can’t be easy to take on that responsibility. Svitolina’s life would be quite complex even without the war, given that she recently returned to tour after welcoming a baby girl, Skai, in October 2022. But she now has additional duties.
She is not only an ambassador for United24, President Zelensky’s fundraising program, but also the director of her own charitable foundation, whose subtitle is “Changing Lives through Tennis.” When I ask her how she handles all the stress, she mentions the extraordinary human ability to adapt to almost any circumstance.
“It’s been almost two years since the war started,” he said. “And we, as humans, adapt to that. I can’t complain about my life, not when I travel the world and have the opportunity to play on big courts in front of so many people. At home, soldiers, men and women, are on the front lines defending our borders. And this really gives me huge, huge motivation. “I wake up every morning with the mission of helping them, through all the money I raised for this war.”
“My family is still in Odessa”
Svitolina gave her compatriots a different boost last summer when she became people’s champion at Wimbledon. For most observers, the highlight of the fortnight was her politically charged meeting with Victoria Azarenka of Belarus. At the end of a three-set epic, Svitolina’s decisive final ace drew the loudest applause ever heard for a non-Brit on court number one. So loud, in fact, that Azarenka later accused fans of being drunk on Pimm’s. Azarenka was then booed off the court, due to the usual non-handshake between two players divided by war.
Although Svitolina would be eliminated in the semifinals, she still remembers Wimbledon 2023 as the favorite tournament of her career. “The experience I had with an electric atmosphere, electric feeling and support, so far it is the best,” said Svitolina, whose homeland never hosted a WTA event even in peacetime.
As it happens, London has been Svitolina’s second home for much of the last decade. She owns a flat in south-west London and even dated English fast bowler Reece Topley for a while after seeing him in the gym at Chelsea’s posh Harbor Club.
These days, she spends more time in Monaco or Switzerland with her husband, the maverick French player Gael Monfils. However, her roots are in Odessa, the Black Sea port that has served as a base for Ukraine’s recent counterattack against the Russian navy.
“My grandmother, my uncle and their family are still in Odessa,” he explained. “Because it is so close to the sea, sometimes the Russians send missiles and people don’t have time to go to a bomb shelter. So this is difficult for sure.
“In November I went to Odessa, kyiv, Kharkiv and Dnieper,” Svitolina added, citing the four largest cities in Ukraine. “It was very important for me to return to Kharkiv. I went to the tennis club where I played my first tournaments and met my first professional coach. He is heartbreaking. Kharkiv has been under massive bombing and I couldn’t recognize the city. It is quite empty and some of the houses are completely destroyed. I felt like I needed to see this with my own eyes, so I could talk about it and understand what’s really happening. Because sometimes people don’t really believe in what is happening in Ukraine.”
For more information on the progress of the war, Svitolina has a well-placed source in the Ukrainian military: namely, her closest tennis friend, Sergiy Stakhovsky. These two were never actually on court together, despite applying for a mixed doubles wildcard for the Tokyo Olympics. But they are, respectively, the most famous male and female players in Ukraine. Additionally, they have helped organize a tour for the next generation of young people, most of whom are denied the opportunity to play.
“I talk to Sergiy almost every day,” Svitolina explained. “We did five tournaments for children in Ukraine. And not only is he helping me and my foundation, but he’s also going to war. I’m happy to have a friend like that. This is his mission.
“There is also Alex Dolgopolov [another former top-40 player who has gone to the front]. It’s amazing to think that they’ve been on tour with me and now they have to go fight in a completely different way, but I’m proud of their choice and what they’re doing for our country. “It really takes courage and they both have a big heart.”
‘I prioritize my health and that of my family’
Back on tour, Svitolina’s main ally is her experienced Dutch coach Raemon Sluiter, who does everything he can to ease her various burdens. “I’m really grateful to Raemon for understanding him,” said Svitolina, who was due to open her Australian Open campaign against Australian wild card Taylah Preston on Monday. “Because I have a lot of things on my plate, you know: being a mom, my humanitarian work, my foundation, now United24. And then also play tennis. It’s important to me to have these different directions and I’m happy that he understands that.
“He’s a very honest guy and I’m happy that’s the case. Sometimes, of course, it’s hard to hear the hard truths. I have to be realistic with what I can do with programming, with preparation, with the work we do on the court. Because right now I’m not 20 years old anymore. [Svitolina turned 29 in September.]
“I have to be smart, prioritize my health, my family too. Sometimes I need a few days of total rest. Before I practiced more hours but now it’s more about resting and being mentally fresh for the games, because they demand a lot from me. So this is what we always have to balance.”
Sluiter, like everyone else, is full of admiration for Svitolina’s ability to juggle a dozen different balls, only a few of which are covered in fuzzy yellow felt. “I don’t want to use the F-word,” he said this weekend, “but she’s…tough.”
Here’s a woman with a growing fan base, and rightly so. The tragedy of war has left sport far down the agenda in Svitolina’s home country. But as she travels the world seeking to boost Ukraine’s morale, she deserves to be acclaimed at every event she participates in.
