Elina Svitolina had a brilliant 2019 at times reaching semi-finals at Wimbledon and the US Open and breaking her curse as a result of not getting past the Quarter-Finals.
Svitolina though suffered injuries at times with a persistent knee injury rearing its head again. Despite that the Ukrainian admitted she heads into this year full of confidence knowing she can go that step further.
“There was a little bit of everything, the injury as well gave me some thoughts to think about,” Svitolina said.
“And good wins, bad wins, making semi-finals definitely brought me the belief that I could make one step further and I had the chance to play in the biggest stages.
“[It] gave me lots of confidence at that particular point. And there was different kind of situations, I think, in both years.
“I think maybe 2019 was tough, more tough than [2018] because there were more sad moments, I would say … What I learned for the past year [is] that you have to stay really positive on even the bad moments and try to move forward and just be yourself.”
Svitolina has worked with Andrew Bettles for a number of years but recently added ex player Marcos Baghdatis to her coaching staff and said that it has added that extra percent due to his playing experience.
“As an ex-player he sees the game from his point and it’s something different that I was looking for, to add into my game,” the 25-year-old said.
“For sure we improved massively with Andy [Bettles] for the past years I’ve been working with him and he knows me very, very good.
“For me it’s important to add the small things that can improve my game and that’s what I’m looking for … I really enjoy the atmosphere when we are all three of us on the court and that’s been going well so far.”
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