Tour mom Elina Svitolina knocks on Top 10 door at Roland Garros: “I want to make the push right now”

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ROME, Italy—The WTA Tour’s growing population of mothers are often soft-focus stories and sentimental favorites. Elina Svitolina is not here for that.

“I’m trying to really push for these next few years,” the world No. 14 told me earlier this month at the Interazionali BNL d’Italia. “I don’t know how many years are still in front of me, but I want to make the push right now.

“I feel like I’m fit, I’m playing well, I’m mentally very locked in for the tournaments. I just want to find this edge and try to challenge these big players, to become one of them again. In order to do that you need to be perfect, or at least find your own way that works for you. I have all the experience from previous years but right now, the tennis is more powerful, so it’s all about the small details that make the difference.”

A former world No. 3, Svitolina left the tour months after winning an Olympic bronze medal. She welcomed daughter Skaï with husband and fellow player Gaël Monfils and gave few public indications that she planned to resume an already decade-long career.

I feel like when I’m fit, I can play well and challenge the top players. For me, it’s important to keep knocking, to keep trying to find the good game with each match that I play. Elina Svitolina

When she did reemerge on the major stage for Roland Garros 2023, it was immediately apparent something was different. Svitolina was still a counterpuncher at heart, but where most return from maternity leave effectively the same player, the Ukrainan embraced a more aggressive mindset. Gone was the passivity that had cost her so many close matches—she famously lost a 2017 Roland Garros quarterfinal to Simona Halep from 6-4, 5-1 up—and in its place was a willingness to crack winners off both wings.

The subsequent results were spectacular. She followed up a quarterfinal finish in Paris with a semifinal run at Wimbledon, punctuated by a tour de force performance against then-No. 1 Iga Swiatek. Under pressure beneath the Centre Court roof, she thundered a backhand up the line and served out the biggest win of her career.

“I always was looking to improve my serve, to improve the power on my shots, to strike the ball more cleaner, some technical things on my forehand,” she reflected at that year’s US Open. “Now I had time. I had three months starting from January until my first match where we were just working on my game.”

The impact of her quick comeback invariably led to a year of injuries, most of which Svitolina opted to play through in order to represent Ukraine in Paris for the Olympic Games—an event carrying added significance given the continued invasion into her homeland.

“For me it's always the first thing that I have on my mind when I wake up,” she said after a first-round win at Roland Garros, a 6-1, 6-1 master class against Zeynep Sönmez. “Just yesterday there was a massive attack in Kyiv…I had to really work hard with my psychologist, with the people in my team, to find the ways to feel comfortable in a way.

“But of course, it's complicated because every single day there is rockets landing in Ukraine. Each time I speak to my parents or my grandmother that are in Ukraine, always bad news.”

Svitolina gives direct support to the troops with her eponymous foundation and fundraising efforts, and also aims to inspire with her play. Finally healthy after undergoing foot surgery in the off-season, she spent the remaining weeks devoted to self-improvement, swapping out her longtime Wilson frame for a Diadem Axis.

I’m getting more easy power...maybe also a little more heaviness. With the serve, we could right away see how, on the speed monitor, they're more powerful. Elina Svitolina on her new racquet

“It was actually Gaël’s brother Daryl had told me about it a year ago,” she revealed to me in Rome. “He was telling me about the high quality of their racquets because it still has a form inside the racquet. All of the racquets used to have this form inside but a lot of brands have switched away from that. This is quite good for my game.

“I’m getting more easy power. My strokes have more power, maybe also a little more heaviness. With the serve, we could right away see how, on the speed monitor, they’re more powerful.”

Showing no ill effects from the switch, she began 2025 with quarterfinal runs at the Australian Open and Indian Wells. Her clay-court resume features an 18th career title in Rouen and two more quarterfinals in Madrid and Rome. Already up to 26 match wins, the 30-year-old is four away from her 2024 total, a stat she credits with helping maintain her visibly improved fitness.

“I’ve also been playing a lot of matches this year with a lot of intensity,” said Svitolina, who has won six of nine three-setters this year. “It feels like it’s been many years since I’ve played this many matches, but that’s a good problem to have!”

For all of her post-motherhood changes, one constant is coach Andrew Bettles, who Svitolina re-hired after a successful 2023 partnership with Raemon Sluiter. Initially her hitting partner, Bettles became Svitolina’s full-time coach in 2018, leading to a career-best stretch that included that year’s WTA Finals title and back-to-back Grand Slam semifinals in 2019.

“I do wish I’d had a bigger team at an early age,” she reflected. “At the time, it was not really that popular to have it, but that might have helped me take better care of my health and fitness. Right now, these younger players have four or five people already with them! That could put a lot of pressure on you but at the same time, I feel like it puts them on a good path to have a long career, to be injury-free, and to be fit. That’s why we can see now younger players are so much fitter and more ready to play on the high level.”

Another is husband Monfils, who not only co-parents Skaï but also, at 38, is also proving to be more than a sentimental favorite at his home Slam. Though he just missed out on a seed, Monfils kicked off 2025 with a title of his own in Auckland, followed by a fourth-round run at the Australian Open.

“I feel like I draw motivation from him and he draws it from me, as well. We both had a kind of comeback; he was recovering from injuries and didn’t know if he could come back. When we’re at the tennis, we work, we have fun, and then when we come home we can completely relax. We both have a lot of things off the court. I have my foundation and my social projects; he has his YouTube channel and other projects that he does.

“We love each other completely, when we’re tennis players with our on-court personalities, and when we’re off the court when I’m a normal girl, normal Elina!”

In a section of the draw that includes both defending champion Swiatek and No. 4 seed Jasmine Paolini, Svitolina, seeded 13th, could return to the Top 10 for the first time since 2021.

“I’ve worked really hard to be somewhere close to the top players. I still have a lot of things I have to improve in my game, things that could get better. But I feel like when I’m fit, I can play well and challenge the top players. For me, it’s important to keep knocking, to keep trying to find the good game with each match that I play.”

A younger Svitolina may have waited for opportunity to come her way. Now she is the one who knocks.