Elina Svitolina announced that she parted ways with her coach of over a year, Raemon Sluiter, despite a really successful spell together.
Svitolina was away from the sport in the second half of 2022 due to a pregnancy, which she announced mid-season. Her return was supposed to happen sometime the following year, and after giving birth to a healthy daughter named Skai, the Ukranian returned to tennis at the Charleston Open in April of 2023.
That was the first event she had Sluiter in her corner, and it was a decent return. She didn’t win the match but played pretty well and participated in a fundraiser for Ukraine at the event, so overall, it was a great comeback experience for her.
That lovely experience is why Svitolina returned to Charleston this year and did better by making the third round. Slowly but surely, Svitolian worked her way to a solid level last year, culminating in her first trophy as a mother, which she won in Strasbourg by beating Anna Blinkova 6-2, 6-3 in the final.
She then put together an amazing showing at Roland Garros, making the quarter-finals, where she lost to Aryna Sabalenka in straight sets 3-6, 4-6.
She then made the Wimbledon semi-final before failing to reproduce that same level towards the end of the year, but overall, it was a great comeback year. This year saw her play fairly similarly with a decent amount of excellent results, including a final in Auckland earlier this year.
Despite that, Svitolina made the call to part ways with her coach, who has been with her since her return last year.
“I just wanted to let you know that Raemon Sluiter and I have decided to end our working relationship. We have had a great run and Ray has helped me become a better player.”
“In my opinion he’s one of the best out there on either tour and I will always be grateful of what we achieved together through his and our hard work and efforts. I will update you all when I decide on my next moves regarding a coach but for now; I just want to thank Ray again and wish him all the best!”
The split, from the way Svitolina wrote the message, seemed to have been amicable, even though we won’t know what happened between them and what the real reason was.
Her results this year have been decent, but she didn’t hit the high she had last year. Her performance at Wimbledon was overall worse, and Roland Garros wasn’t as sharp either, so possibly, she could have felt that they hit a peak in terms of what they could do together.
Now, the Ukrainian player will search for a replacement, but she’s certainly on the clock for it because Svitolina admitted that she wouldn’t be playing much past 30 after she gave birth.
Considering that she will turn 30 in just over a month, the Ukranian might be looking at hiring her final career coach.
