Elina Svitolina points to positive attitude in explaining her rise

The No. 3-ranked Elina Svitolina, who lost her first match in the WTA Finals against Simona Halep in Singapore on Monday, says that staying positive has been important to her rise this season.

“There was couple of matches that I lost were painful, to have bad memories. I learned a lot from each match I lost,” she said, speaking to press before the tournament. “I only look forward and because I'm going this way (pointing forward), I don't want to go back and look at these matches that were painful, no.”

The Ukrainian, playing her first Grand Slam semifinal, was up a set and 5-1 against Halep at the French Open before falling in three sets.

Svitolina has won five tournaments this year, winning Taipei City, Dubai, Istanbul, Rome and Toronto to break into the Top 5 in the rankings. The 23-year-old was in the Top 20 in 2015 and 2016, but hadn’t beaten the biggest players on the big stages.

This year, though, she began to really step things up, winning five titles and establishing a 7-2 record against Top 5 players. Svitolina won Toronto, knocking off four Top 10 players—Venus Williams, Garbine Muguruza, Halep and Caroline Wozniacki. All of them are competing at the WTA Finals.

Svitolina added that the confidence she has gained really helped her in her matches.

“I try to be very, very focused on myself and don't really think about negative things. What is important to have your confidence all the time, throughout the year,” she said. “Even when the matches, if you lose some matches, you try to come back and to play your best tennis, because you never know when is the right time, when is the moment for you to have successful week. Confidence is a tricky thing, but I try to work on this so then I have my confidence, most of days.”

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