Former world No 3 Elina Svitolina has confirmed that she has started training again and noted that she is “taking it one day at a time.” Svitolina, 28, hasn’t played in any WTA events since March. Last spring, Svitolina announced an indefinite break from tennis.
In May, Svitolina announced pregnancy. After welcoming her first baby in October, Svitolina is planning to return to action at some point during the 2023 season. “Right now I’m taking one day at a time, getting stronger, training hard and looking forward to getting back on court,” Svitolina told Reuters.
Svitolina ‘switched off from tennis’
The moment Svitolina announced an indefinite break from tennis, she put away all of her rackets as she wanted “to switch off from tennis.” After the Russian aggression on Ukraine started, Svitolina appeared in three more tournaments but it was evident that she wasn’t mentally in the best frame of mind to go out and compete.
“I didn’t touch a racket for seven months. I wanted to switch off from tennis. I had maybe too much because of what happened in the end of February and all the nerves and all the pressure. The tournaments I played were probably too much for me mentally, so I was really happy to switch off completely.
Right now, for me the goal is to come back, but I’m sure I won’t regret that I took this time off,” Svitolina said in mid-January. Svitolina hasn’t played in nearly a full year and expectedly her ranking has plummeted.
Now, Svitolina is ranked at No 378 in the world. But when Svitolina returns, she won’t have any points to defend and she will probably very quickly return to the top-100 in the world. Since Svitolina has underlined that she is not rushing with her comeback, she could very well use the first six months of the year to just train and then return in the second half of the 2023 season.
