Two-time Grand Slam semifinalist Elina Svitolina didn’t precisely ease her approach again in her first match as a mom: Her return after greater than a yr away from the tennis tour was a back-and-forth three-setter lasting 2 hours, 46 minutes on the Charleston Open on Monday.
Svitolina — ranked as excessive as No. 3 prior to now and presently No. 1,081 — couldn’t fairly pull out a victory, ceding the final two video games and shedding 6-7 (3), 6-2, 6-4 to Yulia Putintseva on the primary stadium’s inexperienced clay on a cloudy, breezy day.
“Bodily, it was not straightforward for me,” mentioned Svitolina, a 28-year-old from Ukraine. “It confirmed, I believe, that I am not at my finest, however I am getting there.”
She felt goosebumps when the group roared to mark her entrance. There have been her acquainted big-cut forehands. Her customary visor. And the unmistakable competitiveness displayed by clenched fists and yells of “Let’s go!”
“It’s very good to have her again. She’s all the time been tremendous good and an inspiration for me, as a result of she was a warrior on court docket, a fighter, and I really like these type of gamers. It’s much more inspirational seeing her come again as a mother,” mentioned Paula Badosa, who’s seeded twelfth in Charleston. “I’m very joyful for her and I hope quickly she’s again the place she belongs.”
Svitolina and her husband, fellow participant Gael Monfils, grew to become mother and father in October, when their daughter, Skaï, was born. From the time of her earlier match — on the Miami Open in March 2022, when she was ranked No. 20 — Svitolina knew she needed to return again to tennis.
Simply did not know when.
She started the method Jan. 2, working alongside Monfils, who was getting back from an damage.
“Good firm,” Svitolina mentioned. “We actually motivated one another to coach actually laborious, every single day.”
They’re each adjusting to life as mother and pa with jobs that require loads of journey. Monfils went to California and Florida for current tournaments; now he’s at dwelling in Monaco with Skaï, FaceTiming with Svitolina as a lot as potential.
“She loves the cellphone. She holds the cellphone. It isn’t going to be straightforward to take the cellphone from her sooner or later,” Svitolina mentioned with fun. “She’s getting used to FaceTime.”
That is the longest she has been away from her child since a week-long journey to Ukraine in February, when Svitolina visited her grandmother, uncle and different relations and joined former professional Sergiy Stakhovsky in holding a tennis clinic for 300 children amid the conflict that started a yr earlier when Russia invaded.
Svitolina thought it was “unhappy” that the All England Membership introduced final week it could enable gamers from Russia and Belarus, which aided within the assault, to return to Wimbledon in June after being banned from the match in 2022 due to the invasion.
One in every of her proudest moments in tennis was incomes a bronze medal for Ukraine on the Tokyo Olympics. Amongst her different accomplishments: profitable the season-ending WTA Finals in 2018 and reaching the semifinals at Wimbledon and the U.S. Open the next yr.
Now she’ll head to smaller venues on the game’s decrease ranges — a match in Switzerland with $60,000 in whole prize cash; one in Portugal providing $100,000 — and take a look at to determine her schedule past that.
Does she nonetheless harbor hopes of a Grand Slam title at some point?
“It’s the last word aim for me,” Svitolina mentioned.
In different Day 1 matches, 2017 U.S. Open champion Sloane Stephens was a 3-6, 6-1, 6-2 winner in opposition to qualifier Louisa Chirico, 17-year-old Linda Fruhvirtova beat Jil Teichmann 6-2, 3-6, 6-2, Anna Kalinskaya defeated Anhelina Kalinina 7-6 (6), 6-4, qualifier Katherine Sebov acquired previous Lauren Davis 4-6, 6-1, 6-2, and Anna Blinkova eradicated Anna Bondar 7-6 (7), 6-2 to arrange a second-round matchup in opposition to top-seeded Jessica Pegula.