Elina Svitolina returns to Top 10 on WTA rankings after sizzling start to 2026 season

Three weeks ago, after her run to the title in Auckland, Elina Svitolina rose to No. 12 on the WTA rankings, her highest ranking since returning to the tour as a mom in 2023.

Today, she one-ups that feat in a big way.

After extending her perfect start to the season to 10-0 by reaching the semifinals of the Australian Open, which included back-to-back wins over Top 10 players Mirra Andreeva and Coco Gauff—defeating them both in straight sets, no less—the Ukrainian breaks back into the Top 10 herself, rising from No. 12 to No. 10.

She secured that Top 10 return with her dominant 6-1, 6-2 victory over Gauff in the quarterfinals in Melbourne, then admitted afterwards it had been her goal for the whole season.

“After my maternity leave it was my dream to come back into the Top 10. It’s always been my goal,” she said in her on-court interview that night. “Unfortunately it didn’t happen last year—I stopped playing after September. And then when we were training in the off-season, I was telling my coach that I want to come back in Top 10 still, so this was my goal for this year.”

Svitolina had been on the cusp of the Top 10 late last year, but ended her season citing the need to rest, heal and recharge.

During her run in Melbourne, she said she probably wouldn’t have even played in Australia this year had she not taken that break.

“If I would push myself to finish the year, really force myself, I don’t think I would start the season even playing in Australia, because I would be really dead mentally,” she said. “Physically I’m not even sure that it would be a good option for me, because I might get injured in this kind of mental state, because when you push yourself and you play in the highest level with my game style, it’s really pushing the limits. So it was important to just step back.

“Of course, you know, I was sad that I didn’t give myself a chance to get maybe in the WTA Finals or maybe get back in the Top 10, but this was, you know, the right choice that I did. I can see now that I’m more refreshed. I’m ready to face the difficult situation in the matches, and I think the matches that I had in Auckland and a couple of them here, when I face a difficult situation, I’m ready to accept that sometimes things are not going your way, and you have to fight, you have to dig deep and try to find a way to win.”

And so, Svitolina will now kick off her fourth career stint—and 219th career week—in the Top 10, the bulk of thot stay coming in a massive 212-week stint between May 22nd, 2017 and October 31st, 2021. She’s been ranked as high as No. 3, spending time at that personal best during the 2017, 2018 and 2019 seasons.

The Ukrainian is now one of two moms in the current WTA Top 10, along with Belinda Bencic, who broke back into the elite just recently herself, the week before the Australian Open.

The two of them are the first moms in the Top 10 since Serena Williams spent her last weeks in the elite in 2021, at Wimbledon.