Of all the different motives that drove the 256 singles players who took part in the Australian Open, Elina Svitolina’s is certainly the purest. Svitolina, the most prominent Ukrainian in world sport, plays every match for the benefit of her embattled country.
“There is so much love that the Ukrainian people have given me, and I would like to give it back,” Svitolina told Telegraph Sport. “I want to share these moments with them and give them a taste of something different, so that it is not just the war and the difficult situations they face.
“I have seen on social media that people have been woken up by the rocket attack, and that they have been watching my matches in the subway or in the shelters at night, while I was playing at four or five o’clock. in the morning. It is a very beautiful moment and I feel that I am responsible for the happy moments in their lives.”
It cannot be easy to bear such responsibility. Svitolina’s life would be complex enough even without the war, as she recently returned to tour after welcoming a baby girl – Skai – in October 2022. But now she has extra duties.
As well as being an ambassador for United24, President Zelensky’s fundraising programme, she is also the head of her own charitable foundation, subtitled ‘Changing Lives through Tennis’. When I ask how she deals with 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,” she said. “And we as people adapt to that. I can’t complain about my life, not when I travel the world and get the chance 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 enormous, enormous motivation. I wake up every morning with a mission to help them, with all the money I’ve raised for this war.”
‘My family is still in Odessa’
Svitolina gave her compatriots a different kind of boost last summer when she became the people’s champion at Wimbledon. For most observers, the highlight of the past two weeks was her politically charged meeting with Belarusian Victoria Azarenka. At the end of a three-set epic, Svitolina’s decisive final ace elicited the loudest cheer ever heard for a non-Briton on No1 Court. So loud, in fact, that Azarenka later accused fans of being drunk at Pimm’s. Azarenka was then booed off the field for the customary non-handshake between two players divided by war.
Even though Svitolina would be eliminated in the semi-finals, she still remembers Wimbledon 2023 as the favorite tournament of her career. “The experience I had with an electric atmosphere, an electric feeling and support, is the best so far,” said Svitolina, whose home country never hosted a WTA event even in peacetime.
Coincidentally, London has been a second home to Svitolina for the past decade. She has a flat in south-west London and even dated England fast bowler Reece Topley for a while after seeing him at the gym at Chelsea’s swanky Harbor Club.
Nowadays she spends more time in Monaco, or in Switzerland with her husband – the idiosyncratic French player Gael Monfils. Yet its roots lie in Odessa, the Black Sea port city that provided the base for Ukraine’s recent counterattack on the Russian navy.
“My grandmother, my uncle and his family are still in Odessa,” she explained. “Because it is so close to the sea, the Russians sometimes send missiles and people don’t have time to go to a bomb shelter. So this is certainly difficult.
“In November I went to Odessa, Kiev, Kharkov and Dnipro,” Svitolina added, referring to the four largest cities in Ukraine. “It was very important for me to return to Kharkov. I went to the tennis club where I played my first tournaments and met my first professional coach. It’s heartbreaking. Kharkiv was heavily bombed and I couldn’t recognize the city. It is quite empty and some houses are completely destroyed. I felt I needed to see this with my eyes so I could talk about it and understand what was really going on. Because sometimes people don’t really believe what’s happening in Ukraine.”
For more insight into the course of the war, Svitolina has a well-placed source in the Ukrainian army: her best tennis friend Sergiy Stakhovsky. These two never appeared on the court together, despite requesting a mixed doubles wildcard for the Tokyo Olympics. But they are the most famous male and female players to come out of Ukraine respectively. In addition, they have helped create a tour for the next generation of juniors, who are usually denied the opportunity to play.
“I talk to Sergiy almost every day,” Svitolina explains. “We did five tournaments for the children in Ukraine. And he not only helps me and my foundation, but also goes to war. I’m glad I have such a friend. This is his mission.
“There is also Alex Dolgopolov [another former top-40 player who has gone to the front]. It’s great to think that they’ve been on tour with me and now have to 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 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. “With Raemon, I am very grateful for his understanding,” said Svitolina, who was due to open her Australian Open campaign against Australian wildcard Taylah Preston on Monday. “Because I have a lot in my hands, you know: being a mother, my humanitarian work, my foundation, now United24. And then play tennis. It’s important to me to have these different directions, and I’m glad he understands this.
“He’s a very honest man, and I’m glad he is that way. Of course, sometimes it’s hard to hear the hard truths. I have to be realistic with what I can do with the planning, with the preparation, with the work we do on the field. Because at this point I’m not twenty years old anymore. [Svitolina turned 29 in September.]
“I have to be smart and prioritize my health, and also my family. Sometimes I need a few days completely off. I used to train more hours, but now it’s more about resting and being mentally fresh before the competitions, because they demand a lot from me. So this is what we always have to balance.”
Sluiter, like everyone else, is in admiration of Svitolina’s ability to juggle a dozen different balls, only some of which are covered in faint 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 the war has pushed sport far up the agenda in Svitolina’s home country. But as she travels the world in an effort to boost Ukrainian morale, she deserves to be lionized at every event she plays.