Down goes Iga: Svitolina beats the best Swiatek and reaches the semifinals of Wimbledon
Three months after returning from maternity leave, Elina Svitolina reached the Wimbledon semifinals by beating Iga Swiatek 7-5, 6-7(5), 6-2 on Tuesday.
The 28-year-old Ukrainian gave birth to her daughter in October and returned to the WTA tour in April. A month after reaching the quarterfinals at the French Open, she received a wild card into the grass court tournament.
“I’m probably going to have a beer first,” Svitolina said in court. “If someone told me at the start of the tournament that I will be in the semi-finals and beat the world number 1, I would say they are crazy.”
Swiatek, a four-time major champion, won her third French Open title last month, but made her first appearance in the Wimbledon quarterfinals.
Svitolina will next take on Marketa Vondrousova for a spot in Saturday’s final. It will be the Ukrainian player’s second time in the semifinals of Wimbledon. She lost to eventual champion Simona Halep at that stage in 2019.
“I’m just going to enjoy tonight and then get some treatment, get some massage, much needed and then just regroup and be ready for the next big battle,” Svitolina said.
Svitolina is ranked 3rd in the world and also reached the semifinals of the US Open in 2019. She is currently ranked 76th. To reach the semifinals this year, she defeated four Grand Slam champions: Venus Williams in the first round, Sofia Kenin in the third, Victoria Azarenka in the fourth and Swiatek in the quarterfinals.
Vondrousova hurtles past Pegula
Vondrousova won five straight matches in the final set, defeating fourth-seeded Jessica Pegula 6-4, 2-6, 6-4 at number 1 court. The southpaw Czech who reached the 2019 French Open final was down 4-1 in the third set, but didn’t lose a game after that.
“I just try to stay in every game. It can change quite quickly,” Vondrousova said. “She got so much better in the second set. She pushed me today.”
Pegula is now 0-6 in Grand Slam quarterfinals. The 29-year-old American was on this podium for the first time at Wimbledon.
Vondrousova had won just four games on grass en route to the All England Club tournament. But she has surfaced five times in a row in the past eight days.
The victory for Vondrousova is her fourth over a seeded player at this year’s Wimbledon tournament. She defeated No. 12 Veronika Kudermetova in the second round, No. 20 Donna Vekic in the third round, and No. 32 Marie Bouzkova in the fourth round.
Pegula was leading 3–1 in the third set when play was stopped to allow the roof over No. 1 Court to be closed with oncoming rain. Pegula then kept serve in the next game to lead 4–1 before Vondrousova took over.
Later Tuesday, in the men’s quarter-finals, seven-time Wimbledon champion Novak Djokovic will face Andrey Rublev on Center Court and Jannik Sinner against Roman Safiullin on No. 1 Court.
