Elina Svitolina has been on an incredible run since she returned to tennis. The Ukrainian-born tennis star carried over her incredible form from Wimbledon last month. Svitolina is currently playing in the Mubadala Citi DC Open, with the crowd backing her up.
She defeated Victoria Azarenka in the first round, in a repeat of their Wimbledon encounter. Svitolina then meted out a similar result to Daria Kasatkina to progress to the quarterfinals of the Citi Open.
After defeating Kasatkina 6-2, 6-2, Elina was spotted in the stands, cheering for her husband Gael Monfils. Overall, it was quite a hectic day for Svitolina and she revealed the hilarious way she asked her coach for a beer.
Svitolina shared a snippet of her conversation with her coach Raemon Sluiter, where she weaponized a cute cat gif to get a Yes from Sluiter. She captioned the screenshot on her Instagram story with, “Asking coach for a beer be like…”
Her request was a very simple one, “Can you take me one beer please?” with the gift. Of course, Sluiter could not deny her this request. He responded, “Hahahaha. How can I refuse.”
Svitolina partnered with Sluiter when she made her comeback to tennis after giving birth to a daughter. This partnership has paid off well for Svitolina, who made history at Wimbledon last month. Her quality of tennis speaks for itself and Svitolina has returned to the Top 30 rankings since she fell out of the top 100 due to pregnancy.
Elina Svitolina finally met her match in Jessica Pegula
The Ukrainian Svitolina has looked dangerous on the tennis court. She lifted her first WTA title since becoming a mother at the Internationaux de Strasbourg. Svitolina carried it over to the French Open reaching the quarterfinals. She outperformed herself at Wimbledon before she eventually lost to Marketa Vondrousova.
Elina looked equally threatening at the Citi Open but she finally met her match in Jessica Pegula. Top-seeded Pegula put an end to the Svitolina juggernaut. However, Pegula had to work very hard to keep Svitolina at bay, who looked to take back control any minute.
Elina had claimed the opening set before Jessica came back from behind to win the next two sets. Pegula defeated Svitolina 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 in a thrilling match that lasted 2 hours and 8 minutes. With this win, Pegula has reached her career-high ranking of number 3.
Say hello to the new world No.3 👋@JPegula battles past Svitolina 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 to reach the semis in DC, ensuring she will return to her career-high ranking!#MubadalaCitiDCOpen pic.twitter.com/ZwrmXqzdvu
— Mubadala Citi DC Open (@mubadalacitidc) August 4, 2023
This encounter was their first since playing each other at Indian Wells in 2019. With this win under her belt, Pegula has improved their head-to-head record to 3-1.
The American has made it to the last four for the first time since Charleston in April. Jessica previously lifted the Citi Open silverware back in 2019 and this marks her third semifinal overall. She will face either Maria Sakkari or Madison Keys next.