Ukrainians Elina Svitolina and Marta Kostyuk have found new perspectives and joys on court

Every title celebration is a joyful one, but Marta Kostyuk and Elina Svitolina brought an extra dose of euphoria to their victories in Madrid and Rome this month.

Kostyuk, who had just won her first WTA 1000, stunned the fans in the Caja Magica by doing a backflip, as if the clay court were a beam in a gymnastics competition.

Two weeks later, when the 31-year-old Svitolina won her third Italian Open, she didn’t try to match her younger countrywoman’s feat of athleticism. Instead, after closing out Coco Gauff in the final, Svitolina’s racquet went flying out of her hand, she raised her arms over her head, and her face broke into a spontaneous, disbelieving grin. Eight years after her last title in Rome, she may never have expected to be in that position again.

As always with Kostyuk and Svitolina, though, those moments of happiness were with mixed with a much harder reality. Both women are from Ukraine, and neither has shied away from speaking out and supporting their country in whatever ways they can. Even as the two were scaling new career heights in May, their country and its civilians were being struck by new rounds of Russian missiles.

A few minutes after Svitolina twirled in triumph, she finished her trophy speech this way:

I want to thank all the people back in Ukraine that have been supporting me, watching at night, being in the bomb shelters.

“It’s been really heavy for the past couple of weeks for Ukraine, and I want to thank you for all the support, and I feel all the love.”

Before Kostyuk did her back flip, she bypassed the handshake with her Russian opponent, Mirra Andreeva, the same way she and the rest of the Ukrainian players have bypassed handshakes with nearly all their Russian and Belarussian opponents for nearly four years now. In her victory speech, she thanked “all of my opponents” rather than singling out Andreeva.

During the tournament, Kostyuk was asked if “this stuff still fazes you” because “the war’s been going on for so long.” She didn’t waste any time reinforcing her stance. The only Russian player she’ll shake hands with is Daria Kasatkina, she says, because she’s the only one to come out publicly against the invasion.

“For me, that doesn’t change,” Kostyuk said.

Svitolina, Kostyuk and their compatriots have been juggling life on tour, and life during wartime, for more than four years now. If anything, it has only made the women’s Ukrainian tennis contingent stronger. There are seven of them in the Top 100 now—Svitolina (No. 7), Kostyuk (15), Dayana Yastremska (45), Yulia Starodubtseva (54), Oleksandra Oliynykova (66), Anhelina Kalinina (89), and Daria Snigur (95).

Earlier this year, Oliynykova made headlines when she accused several of her tour-mates, including Aryna Sabalenka, of “participating in Russian propaganda” in an interview with L’Equipe, and called for them to be banned from the tour. While her words stirred controversy off the court, her game has only improved this season. She’s up from 96 in the world to a career-high ranking.

Making it in tennis from Ukraine, where sponsorships are hard to come by, has never been easy. Sustaining success now that the country has been thrown into chaos would seem to be even more difficult. In the cases of Svitolina and Kostyuk, that battle seems to have brought them a new perspective and a new determination. This year, and especially this spring, each has fixed a notable flaw in their games.

For Kostyuk, the issue was mental. She was a prodigy who joined the tour at 14, but didn’t make good on her potential right away, something she struggled to get over. Mistakes led to anger, which led to more mistakes. With a lot of therapy, she has broken that cycle this year. You can see it in her results, and you can see it in her much-less-stressed and gloomy mood on court.

“I was living for many years in that state of everyone expecting big results from me,” Kostyuk said in Madrid. “Having such good results being so young was almost like a curse.”

“I’ve tried to change that narrative in my head. And that worked, because, you just, you’re more consistent, you just go out there, you do your job, you don’t have like emotional attachment to it. Whether you win or lose, you just keep working and keep becoming a better person and a player, and that’s it.”

For Svitolina, the issue was more physical. She lacked the overwhelming pace and spin of higher-ranked players like Sabalenka, Iga Swiatek and Elena Rybakina. Against them, she could look like a middleweight trying to counter a heavyweight’s punches.

After taking a mental break in 2025, she came back looking to throw haymakers of her own this season. She has attacked, both with her court positioning and the pace of her shots, in a way she didn’t earlier in her career. A week of training after an early loss in Madrid helped her take the next step upward. She returned in Rome with a new ferocity, beating Swiatek, Rybakina and Gauff in succession. In each of those matches, there was a relentlessness to her mental approach and her shot-making that looked new at age 31.

“This one is I think one of the toughest draws that I had in a tournament,” Svitolina said. “I’m very proud of the way that I’ve been handling myself and handling the nerves and being consistent.”

With their wins, Kostyuk and Svitolina have vaulted themselves into the conversation for Roland Garros and the Grand Slams beyond. After four years of war at home, they’ve found perspective, success, and a chance for joy on court.