ASB Classic | Elina Svitolina seals 19th career title, downs Xinyu Wang to complete dream return after injury

Elina Svitolina has conquered the ASB Classic entering the week as top seed and ending it as the champion defeating Wang Xinyu in straight sets to claim a 19th career title and begins the 2026 season in style after injury issues priorly blighted her.

The 31-year-old now has improved her record in finals to a somewhat astonishing 19-4, a winning percentage just shy of 83%. She entered the year and this tournament as top seed after a pretty poor end to 2025 by her own standards due to injury.

She suffered four straight losses and saw her year cut short after the Billie Jean King Cup Finals. But the comeback is better than the setback as she accomplished her mission to return with a bang. She turned that four match losing run into a winning streak as she saw off Katie Boulter and also rising American Iva Jovic as she and also her opponent Wang Xinyu dented the chances of seeing a potential Jovic v Eala final in what could've been a look towards the future.

But the now is Svitolina and she proved that she still has a lot more to give the sport. Her comeback to the sport after becoming a mother was heroic and she jested that she needed to win the title in order to level the scores with her husband Gael Monfils. The Frenchman who will head into the final year of his illustrious career won the title last year so the pressure was on the other half of the G.E.M.S household to restore honour and bring home an Auckland title this year. Svitolina duly delivered.

Watched on by Monfils and also coached by Andrew Bettles who brought her such success in the early days before her revival with Raemon Sluiter, Svitolina has shown this week that she is still a force and given that she has often thrived in majors in her return it could yet be a golden Aussie summer in terms of results.

"It definitely feels amazing to win another title, especially after a not very pleasant end of the year for me," Svitolina said in her on-court interview. "But that break really helped me to regroup and come back with a new energy and I'm very happy that I got the title here."

With the win, Svitolina moves up one spot to World No.12 as she pushes back towards the top 10. She has to defend Quarter-Final points later this month at the Australian Open so it could yet be a valuable foray if she doesn't get that far and if she does, it could be one that pushes her towards that golden mark.

It also marked one of two Ukrainian finals as Marta Kostyuk an hour later unfortunately to stop the golden double fell to Aryna Sabalenka in the final of Brisbane. But both are carrying the torch during such a tough time and continue to thrive on the court.

Svitolina during her win over Wang faced four break points, saved all of them and won 74% on her first serve points. She broke Wang for a 4-2 lead and closed out the opening set in just over half an hour. It proved to be the only break of the match as she sealed a straight sets win in the second set tie-break. Wang leaves the week with success as she moves up to World No.43 on Monday from World No.57 and is one of the big winners despite loing the final.