"A painful one": Elina Svitolina opens up about journey of recovering from foot injury sustained in 2024

Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina has opened up about a painful journey she suffered because of a foot injury. The 30-year-old suffered with a foot injury in 2024 which ended her season prematurely. She did not feature in any competition after the US Open last year after undergoing a surgery to overcome that injury.

Svitolina has been recently quoted in a report where she talked about how painful the journey has been for her to return to overcome that injury. The Odesa-born also stated that she expected more discomfort when she returned to the court, but it has been great so far.

"I feel like it's been hard enough already, because the foot is something that we use on a daily basis, as well,” she said. “With all the pain that I was struggling with for months, not stepping on the foot at all, it was swelling up during that months, it was really an experience, a painful one. Regarding the coming back on the court, of course I was expecting a little bit of discomfort... I feel like I did well with my team to put, you know, a lot of work to make it, you know, confident and strong for it to be good at the tournaments

Svitolina is currently taking part in the WTA 1000 event at Indian Wells, where she has already booked her spot in the quarterfinal after beating the US Open 2024 runner-up, America’s Jessica Pegula, with a score of 5-7, 6-1, 6-2. She will now face Russia’s young sensation Mirra Andreeva in the last-eight of the competition on Thursday. The 17-year-old, who is already regarded as the one for the future, defeated the former world number three Kazakhstan’s Elena Rybakina in the round of 16 in straight sets with a score of 6-1, 6-2. This will be the first-ever meeting between the two players in professional tennis.