Elina Svitolina is over the moon to be back in the semifinals of a special tournament.
Wed to French tennis player Gael Monfils, Svitolina recently made a heartwarming comeback into the WTA top 10 since she had given birth to their daughter Skai.
Svitolina, who is a two-time champion at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, is now just two victories away from winning the tournament for the third time.
On Thursday night, the 31-year-old staved off a ferocious wafts from Croatian Antonia Ruzic to secure a 3-6 6-2 6-2 victory for a semifinals clash with Coco Gauff.
“It’s really a special place for me. The first time that I won here (in 2017), I was the top 10,” she said.
And also, here, winning twice (2017 and 2018), too.” We love to spend time here. I have my close friends here.
“I love it here and love playing here. I suspect that a fair number of them are coming to support the Ukrainians too. It’s an ideal environment for me, you know.”
But Svitolina understands that it is going to be a very, very tough task against Gauff, who has won two Grand Slam titles, on Friday even though she also triumphed over the American at this year’s Australian Open when she reached the semifinals last month.
I have to recover first of all. I think this is most important because the match is going to be physical,” she said.
“I need to be prepared for long rallies. I also need to be ready for fast balls. That’s the order of concern at the moment.
“Then tomorrow obviously there isn’t a lot of time to work on a couple of things in the warm-up tactically. I did some good stuff in Melbourne, I reckon. I will have to do them again.
“But I think here maybe it’s a bit different conditions, so we’ll see with my coach and really work on tactics, what can work against her.”
The first of Friday’s semifinals will be an all-American match-up between Jessica Pegula, who defeated Clara Tauson of Denmark (6-3, 2-6, 6-4), and Amanda Anisimova, who defeated the defending champion Mirra Andreeva of Russia (2-6, 7-5, 7-6).
If three of the quarterfinals on Thursday featured thrilling three-set battles, Gauff had barely broken a sweat while breaking Filipino hearts by crashing through Eala in ruthless fashion 6-0, 6-2 to end the rising star’s fairy-tale run in Dubai.