Former World No.3
Elina Svitolina recently returned to the WTA Tour after giving birth in 2022, and has shown little sign of slowing down as she continues to impress at Grand Slams.
The Ukrainian defeated Xinyu Wang in the round of 16, easily dispatching of her Chinese opponent in a 6-2 6-1 victory. By virtue of making the final eight, Svitolina has now reached 11 Grand Slam quarterfinals. This puts her behind just former World No.1 Simona Halep with 13 and WTA legend Serena Williams with 16, third on the list of WTA players who have made a singles Grand Slam quarterfinal since 2010.
Svitolina faces tough Rybakina test in the final eight
Now ranked World No.21, the Ukrainian returned to the WTA tour in the summer of 2023 after giving birth to her first child with husband Gael Monfils. Svitolina shocked the tennis community by quickly winning a title in Strasbourg, in addition to knocking out World No.1 Iga Swiatek in the quarterfinals at last year's
Wimbledon. She will face another Grand Slam champion at the same stage in this year's edition, as 2022 champion Elena Rybakina awaits.
Svitolina will be looking for revenge against her Kazakh opponent, as Rybakina emerged victorious in their previous meeting at a Grand Slam. The World No.4 scored a 6-4 6-3 victory over the Ukrainian in the fourth round of last month's French Open, Therefore, Svitolina will no doubt be looking to avenge her loss in Paris. Regardless of the outcome, she has established herself as a force to be reckoned with at Grand Slams.
Since 2010, only a handful of WTA players have reached at least 10 quarterfinals at Grand Slam events. Serena Williams leads the list with 16, Simona Halep is at second place with 13. Svitolina now has 11 quarterfinal appearances, and is within reach of her Romanian counterpart. Former World No.1 Karolina Pliskova and American tennis star Madison Keys round out the top 5 with 11 and 10 quarterfinal performances respectively.