Svitolina turns it around against Rybakina to reach first Rome semi-final since 2018, Swiatek next
Elina Svitolina (No 7) turned the Foro Italico quarter-final around against Elena Rybakina (No 2), winning 2-6, 6-4, 6-4. She now meets three-time Rome champion Iga Świątek for a place in the final.
Elina Svitolina, Rome 2026 | © Inside / PsNewz
Ukrainian No. 7 seed Elina Svitolina recovered from a set down to defeat Kazakh No. 2 seed Elena Rybakina 2-6, 6-4, 6-4 in the Rome WTA 1000 quarter-finals on Campo Centrale, reaching her first semi-final at the Foro Italico since she lifted the second of her back-to-back titles there in 2018. Svitolina will face three-time Rome champion Iga Świątek in the semi-finals.
“After giving birth to our beautiful daughter Skaï (in 2022), it’s really special for me to have these kind of moments on the court,” she said after the match. “Coming back to the top 10, and playing big matches, winning them, it gives me such an amazing and really precious feeling to continue and go for more.”
The numbers said almost nothing separated the two. Total points 51-49 to Svitolina. Service games held 71% each. Return games won 29% each. The break-point ledger was a study in mismatched pressure: 33 break points across the match, 13 for Svitolina and 20 for Rybakina, only eight converted in total.
Rybakina saved 16 of 20 (80%) but was still broken four times — the same as Svitolina, who had created seven fewer opportunities. The Kazakh was under more pressure on serve, and got out of more of it, but the four breaks were enough to lose the match.
Svitolina broken, breaking back
Rybakina took the opening set 6-2 with the cleaner pattern, breaking early for 3-0 and rolling through. Svitolina held at 1-3 and 2-4 only by saving two break points apiece, never really threatening a break of her own. In the final game she saved four set points and twice held advantage before Rybakina finally converted – but it was resistance without a route back.
The second set was a different kind of fight. Every game was contested. Svitolina found the only break at 3-2, and from there both players had to dig deep. At 4-2 the Ukrainian saved four break points in a single game; in the next, Rybakina was 0-40 down and saved three. Neither cracked after that. Svitolina held through 5-3 and 5-4, then served out the set 6-4 on her first set point – her steadiest service game of the match arriving at the moment she needed it most.
The third set followed the same logic before going briefly chaotic. Svitolina broke at the start, held for 2-0, then broke again in a marathon third game that went to four deuces before she converted at advantage on her fourth break point. At 3-0 it looked over.
It wasn’t. Four consecutive service breaks followed – Svitolina broken, breaking back for 4-1, broken again at 4-2 – before both players finally settled their serves. Rybakina held twice under pressure to stay in the set, saving a break point along the way. Svitolina held at 5-3, served for the match at 5-4, and closed it out on her first match point on a serve winner with the cleanest service game of her third set.
third Rome semi-final
It is Svitolina’s third Rome semi-final, her 15th career WTA 1000 semi-final, and her fourth on clay – after the two Rome titles in 2017-2018 and a Madrid 2025 semi-final. It is her fifth top-10 win of 2026 (5-3 against the top 10 this year) and her 48th career top-10 win.
The 31-year-old, who returned to the top 10 of the WTA rankings this year for the first time since October 2021, is reaching her sixth tour-level quarter-final of the season, and her record beyond it has now reached the semi-finals stage at the right time on the right surface, a fortnight before Roland-Garros.
For Rybakina, the defeat ends a clay swing in which she had looked like the most consistent top-10 player on the surface. She had been 9-1 on clay in 2026 entering the match.
