Elina Switolina

Date of Birth: 09.12.1994

Elina Mychailivna Switolina is a Ukrainian tennis player who ranked third in the WTA world rankings in 2017, 2018, and 2019, bronze medalist at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics (held in 2021), and winner of the WTA Finals in 2018. She has won 16 WTA singles titles and two doubles titles. She reached the semifinals in Grand Slam tournaments twice (2019) and the quarterfinals six times (2015, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021).

Birthplace. Sports Career. Elina was born on September 12, 1994, in Odessa, Ukraine, to Elena and Mikhail Switolina. Her parents and older brother Julian encouraged her to play tennis since she was four years old. In 2007, she moved from Odessa to Kharkiv, where she trained under the supervision of Jury Sapronov.

As a youth, she attended the academy of seven-time Grand Slam finalist and Olympic champion Justine Henin, who has experience defeating Serena Williams. Six months before the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Justine began working additionally on Elina's technique and psychology. At the Switolina Academy, she met Ian Hughes, who became her coach in 2014.

All related events occurred

• Elina Switolina defeated Kasatkina, the first racket of Russia, at the tournament in WashingtonLife
• Elina Switolina regained the official status of the first racket of UkraineLife
• Elina Switolina lost in the semifinals and was eliminated from Wimbledon-2023Life

At the Wimbledon Championships in 2012, Elina reached the finals of the junior competitions, where she lost to Canadian Bouchard. She qualified for the main tournament of the US Open 2012 in tennis but lost in the first round to Ana Ivanovic.

Since 2012, Switolina trained at the academy of Charles Offre and Regis Laverne in Nice with personal coach Sebastien Mathieu.

2013. At the 2013 Australian Open, Elina lost in the first round to Kerber; at the 2013 French Open, she reached the second round but lost to Varvara Lepchenko; at the 2013 Wimbledon Championships, she lost in the first round to Marion Bartoli.

Her first victory in a WTA tournament was at the Baku Cup 2013 when she defeated Shahar Peer in the final with a score of 6-4, 6-4.

In early August 2013, she won the International Tennis Federation (ITF) tournament in Donetsk on outdoor hard courts with a prize pool of $75,000 (international ranking - forty-ninth).

At the 2013 US Open, Elina defeated Cibulkova in the first round but lost in the second round to Christina McHale.

2014. At the 2014 Australian Open, Elina reached the third round after defeating Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova and Australian Olivia Rogowska, but lost to American Sloane Stephens.

At the WTA tournament in Nuremberg, held from May 18 to 24, she reached the semifinals but lost to Karolina Pliskova with a score of 2-6, 6-1, 6-2.

In July, Switolina won her first WTA tournament in doubles when she, along with Japan's Doi Misaki, won the Istanbul Cup. She managed to defend her title at the Baku Cup after winning the final against Bojana Jovanovski.

2015. In April-May 2015, Switolina won a WTA tournament for the third time in her career, this time the Princess Lalla Meryem Grand Prix in Morocco. This success allowed her to enter the Top 20 of the WTA rankings for the first time.

Elina performed quite successfully at the 2015 French Open, reaching the quarterfinals of a Grand Slam tournament for the first time.

2016. In July 2016, Switolina began the year representing Ukraine at the Hopman Cup alongside Alexander Dolgopolov. The Ukrainian duo reached the finals but lost to the Australians. At the Sydney International, Elina lost in the first round to Kerber. At the Australian Open, she reached the second round. Subsequently, Justine Henin joined Elina's coaching staff. Switolina reached the semifinals at the tournament in Dubai, where she lost to Sara Errani. At the Doha tournament, Elina was eliminated in the first round.

On March 6, Elina Switolina won the BMW Malaysian Open in Kuala Lumpur. Thanks to this victory, Switolina climbed to fourteenth place in the updated WTA ranking in women's tennis. This was the fourth WTA title for the 21-year-old Ukrainian.

At the French Open, Elina reached the fourth round, where she lost to Serena Williams in two sets. In the third round, she defeated Ana Ivanovic, who had previously beaten her seven times. At Wimbledon 2016, Elina lost in the second round to Yaroslava Shvedova.

On August 9, Switolina defeated world number one Serena Williams in the third round of the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro in two sets (6: 4, 6: 3) and advanced to the quarterfinals, where she lost to Petra Kvitova in 48 minutes (2: 6, 0: 6).

At the Connecticut Open, Elina reached the finals of a Premier-level tournament for the first time, although on her way to the finals she only defeated players with lower ratings. In the decisive match, she lost to Agnieszka Radwanska.

Switolina ended the year at the WTA Elite Trophy, where she also reached the finals but lost to Petra Kvitova. By the end of the year, she remained ranked 14th in the world.

2017. In January 2017, she reached the semifinals of the WTA Premier tournament in Brisbane, defeating Olympic champion Monica Puig from Puerto Rico and world number one Angelique Kerber from Germany.

At the 2017 Australian Open, Switolina defeated Galina Voskoboeva and Julia Boserup but lost in the third round to Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.

In early February, Elina won the WTA Taiwan Open. This was already her fifth title in her professional career.

In February 2017, Switolina won her first WTA Premier 5 title in her career. The first Ukrainian racket won the final of a WTA Premier 5 category tournament in Dubai, defeating Danish Caroline Wozniacki with a score of 6:4, 6:2. The triumph at the Dubai Tennis Championships earned Switolina 900 world ranking points and the tenth place in the updated WTA rankings, a record in the history of Ukrainian women's sports.

2018. At the end of the season, she won the WTA Finals in 2018, achieving the biggest title of her career. Elina Switolina was the first Ukrainian to win the WTA Finals, which is the fifth highest competition after the Grand Slam tournaments. Thanks to this victory, Switolina finished the season in fourth place in the WTA world rankings.

2019. Elina Switolina started the year with an unsuccessful title defense attempt at the tournament in Brisbane, where she lost in the first round to last year's finalist Alexandra Sasnovich from Belarus.

Elina Switolina reached the semifinals at the Indian Wells tournament for the second consecutive year in 2019, where she lost in three sets to 18-year-old Canadian Bianca Andreescu, who later became the tournament champion.

In July 2019, Elina Switolina reached the quarterfinals of Wimbledon for the first time in her career and eventually the semifinals of the tournament, setting a national record for women in singles at Grand Slam tournaments and an overall record for adult players of both sexes for Wimbledon.

2020. On March 8, 2020, Elina Switolina won the tournament in Monterrey. On July 17, 2020, Switolina won a mini exhibition tournament in Berlin.

2021. At the Tokyo Olympics, she won the bronze medal by defeating Kazakh tennis player Elena Rybakina with a score of 1:6, 7:6, 6:4.

2022. In 2022, Elina Switolina took a break from her career due to her pregnancy.

Personal Life. On July 16, 2021, Elina Switolina married French tennis player Gael Monfils. Switolina took her husband's surname. On October 15, 2022, the couple became parents to a daughter.

18.10.2022