Roland-Garros: Svitolina earns first Grand Slam win since giving birth

Elina Svitolina earned her first Grand Slam win since January 2022, defeating Italian Martina Trevisan 6-2, 6-2 in the first round of Roland-Garros.

In what is a quite extraordinary achievement, this victory marks the Ukrainian’s first Grand Slam win since returning to tour after giving birth, and her first since taking a sabbatical from the game following Russia’s invasion of her home country in March 2022.

Svitolina, ranked a high as No. 3 in the world at one stage, entered this year’s Roland-Garros ranked 192nd following more than a year out of the game.

However, the Ukrainian showed little sign of nerves or rust as she breezed past clay-court specialist and last year’s Roland-Garros semi-finalist Martina Trevisan.

20 winners for Svitolina

Svitolina outplayed her Italian opponent in almost every department, hitting 20 winners to just 16 unforced errors and breaking Trevisan four times en route to a surprisingly one-sided contest.

Trevisan, who enjoyed a superb run to the last four last year, was unable to generate a single break point as Svitolina dominated her service games.

Already leading by a set and a break, the Ukrainian broke Trevisan again in the eighth game of the second set to take the match in just one hour and ten minutes.

This is now Svitolina’s sixth straight win, following on from her title triumph at the WTA event in Strasbourg last week, and she is already starting to look every bit the player who reached No 3 in the world.

She will face Australian qualifier Storm Hunter next, who came from a set down to beat Parrizas-Diaz in three sets in their first round encounter.

Paris (Grand Slam), other first-round results (Stade Roland-Garros, clay, EUR 49.600.000, most recent results first):

• Petra Martic vs. Shelby Rogers
• Erika Andreeva vs. Emma Navarro
• Victoria Azarenka vs. Bianca Andreescu
• Ylena In-Albon vs. Claire Liu
• Iga Swiatek vs. Cristina Bucsa
• Sorana Cirstea vs. Jasmine Paolini
• Clara Burel vs. Sara Sorribes Tormo
• Elena Rybakina vs. Brenda Fruhvirtova
• Selena Janicijevic vs. Oceane Dodin
• Linda Noskova vs. Danka Kovinic
• Rebeka Masarova vs. Coco Gauff
• Arantxa Rus vs. Julia Grabher
• Lesia Tsurenko vs. Barbora Krejcikova
• Lin Zhu vs. Lauren Davis
• Olga Danilovic vs. Kateryna Baindl
• Lucia Bronzetti vs. Ons Jabeur
• Mirra Andreeva vs. Alison Riske-Amritraj
• Anhelina Kalinina vs. Diane Parry
• Xinyu Wang vs. Marie Bouzkova
• Rebecca Peterson vs. Fiona Ferro
• Petra Kvitova vs. Elisabetta Cocciaretto
• Veronika Kudermetova vs. Anna Karolina Schmiedlova
• Nao Hibino vs. Anna-Lena Friedsam
• Anna Blinkova vs. Ysaline Bonaventure
• Ekaterina Alexandrova vs. Viktoriya Tomova
• Simona Waltert vs. Elizabeth Mandlik
• Jelena Ostapenko vs. Tereza Martincova
• Tatjana Maria vs. Beatriz Haddad Maia
• Caroline Garcia vs. Xiyu Wang: monday
• Peyton Stearns vs. Katerina Siniakova: monday
• Aliona Bolsova vs. Kristina Kucova: monday
• Yulia Putintseva vs. Maryna Zanevska: monday
• Varvara Gracheva vs. Dalma Galfi: monday
• Elina Avanesyan vs. Belinda Bencic: monday
• Diana Shnaider beat Rebecca Marino: 6-3, 7-5
• Marketa Vondrousova beat Alycia Parks: 6-4, 6-0
• Sloane Stephens beat Karolina Pliskova (16): 6-0, 6-4
• Camila Osorio (LL) beat Ana Bogdan: 3-6, 6-3, 7-5
• Madison Keys (20) beat Kaia Kanepi: 6-1, 3-6, 6-1
• Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova beat Linda Fruhvirtova: 6-2, 6-2
• Donna Vekic (22) beat Dayana Yastremska (Q): 6-2, 7-5
• Bernarda Pera beat Anett Kontaveit: 7-6 (6), 6-2
• Kayla Day (Q) beat Kristina Mladenovic (WC): 7-5, 6-1
• Daria Kasatkina (9) beat Jule Niemeier: 6-3, 6-4
• Jessica Pegula (3) beat Danielle Collins: 6-4, 6-2
• Liudmila Samsonova (15) beat Katie Volynets: 6-0, 6-1
• Irina-Camelia Begu (27) beat Anna Bondar: 6-4, 6-2
• Mayar Sherif beat Madison Brengle: 6-3, 6-1
• Sara Errani beat Jil Teichmann: 3-6, 6-4, 6-2
• Anastasia Potapova (24) beat Taylor Townsend (Q): 6-1, 6-2
• Clara Tauson (Q) beat Aliaksandra Sasnovich: 6-2, 6-0
• Qinwen Zheng (19) beat Tamara Zidansek (Q): 6-3, 6-1
• Camila Giorgi beat Alize Cornet: 6-3, 6-4
• Leolia Jeanjean (WC) beat Kimberly Birrell (WC): 6-4, 6-7 (6), 6-3
• Karolina Muchova beat Maria Sakkari (8): 7-6 (5), 7-5
• Leylah Fernandez beat Magda Linette (21): 6-3, 1-6, 6-3
• Elise Mertens (28) beat Viktoria Hruncakova (LL): 6-1, 6-4
• Kamilla Rakhimova beat Sara Bejlek (Q): 6-0, 6-3
• Aryna Sabalenka (2) beat Marta Kostyuk: 6-3, 6-2
• Iryna Shymanovich (Q) beat Panna Udvardy: 6-7 (6), 6-3, 6-1
• Magdalena Frech beat Shuai Zhang (29): 6-1, 6-1
• Storm Hunter beat Nuria Parrizas Diaz: 4-6, 6-2, 6-4
• Nadia Podoroska beat Jessika Ponchet (WC): 6-0, 6-2