“Just couldn’t dream about a better year”: Svitolina’s post-maternity comeback reaches a Rome final
When Elina Svitolina took 12 months away from the WTA tour in late 2022, she was 28 years old, ranked No. 24, and considered post-peak by most of the tennis world. She returned at Charleston in April 2023, ranked outside the world’s top 800. Within four months of returning, she had reached the Roland-Garros quarter-finals … Continued
Elina Svitolina, Indian Wells 2026 | © PsNewz
When Elina Svitolina took 12 months away from the WTA tour in late 2022, she was 28 years old, ranked No. 24, and considered post-peak by most of the tennis world. She returned at Charleston in April 2023, ranked outside the world’s top 800. Within four months of returning, she had reached the Roland-Garros quarter-finals and the Wimbledon semi-finals.
Then the more difficult phase began. A foot injury cut short 2024. Mental-health concerns took her off tour at times. The form was steady – she stayed in the top 30 throughout – but the high-level wins did not come.
On Thursday afternoon at the Foro Italico, three years and seven months after she gave birth to her daughter Skai, Svitolina beat Iga Swiatek 6-4, 2-6, 6-2 to reach her first Rome final since 2018 — and her first WTA 1000 final on clay since the back-to-back Rome titles she won against Simona Halep in 2017 and 2018.
“It feels a bit less than that, less than eight years,” Svitolina said when a journalist remarked on the gap. The eight years between her two Rome final appearances contain a marriage to Gaël Monfils, a daughter, a long absence, a Wimbledon 2023 semi-final, an injury, a mental-health pause – and now a 2026 in which she has returned to the level that took her to world No. 3 in 2017.
I would never dream to play in such a high level, beat and challenge top players
She said as much on Thursday, in plain terms.
“Especially for coming back after giving birth, having all this journey, I would never dream to play in such a high level, beat and challenge top players, have a chance to play in semis and finals. Yeah, just couldn’t dream about a better year.”
The 2026 season explains the line. She opened the year with the Auckland title, beating Wang Xinyu in the final for her 19th career trophy. She reached the Australian Open semi-finals after beating Mirra Andreeva and Coco Gauff in straight sets, returning to the top 10 for the first time since October 2021.
5-3 against the top 10 in 2026
She made the Dubai final in February, losing to Jessica Pegula. She reached the Indian Wells semi-final, losing to Elena Rybakina. She lost early in Miami and Madrid, made the Stuttgart semi-final. Then Rome: wins over Nikola Bartůňková, Hailey Baptiste, Rybakina (saving 16 break points in a 2-6, 6-4, 6-4 quarter-final) and Swiatek.
Her fifth top-10 win of the year, taking her to 5-3 against the top 10 in 2026 – the best clay swing of her post-maternity comeback.
She is now 26-7 on tour this year, the fifth-most wins on the WTA. She has not been ranked this high since 2021.
The most telling shift, though, has been in how she talks about the Grand Slam title that defined the first half of her career. Asked about it after her Australian Open semi-final loss to Aryna Sabalenka – her fourth career Slam semi-final, her fourth loss at that stage – Svitolina was unsentimental.
I am okay to live my life after tennis and not having won a Grand Slam.
“Before, this was a very sensitive topic,” she said. “But I think after giving birth and having different perspectives, I accepted this idea that I am okay to live my life after tennis and not having won a Grand Slam.”
The Rome quarter-final win against Rybakina drew the same point out of her more emotionally, in the on-court interview. “After giving birth to our beautiful daughter, Skai, it’s really special for me to have these kinds of moments on the court. Coming back to the top-10, playing big matches, winning them – it gives me such an amazing and really precious feeling to continue, and to go for more.”
The Saturday final against Coco Gauff carries the same framing. Asked what winning the trophy would mean, Svitolina was straightforward.
“It will mean the world for me. But I try not to put any kind of pressure on me. I have nothing really to lose.”
The “nothing to lose” phrase is not new. She has used it consistently since her 2024 Australian Open run, when she described herself as having “nothing to lose” against Linda Nosková before reaching the quarter-finals. The framing has carried her, on her own account, through eighteen months of WTA tour life. It is now carrying her into a Rome final.
Gauff-Svitolina, a close match-up
What she does on Saturday is open. Gauff is a player Svitolina knows well – the head-to-head is close, and Svitolina described the matchup in tactical rather than emotional terms. Gauff has been a player in visible flux this week, working through what she has called off-court struggles, and reaching her second consecutive Rome final on a mix of resilience and luck (saved match point against Iva Jovic).
The 2026 season has already carried Svitolina back to the level she was at when she stepped away to have Skai. A trophy on Saturday would close the comeback chapter cleanly. A loss would close it too, just less neatly.
“I just couldn’t dream about a better year,” she said. It’s far from over no matter what.
