Elina Svitolina won the 2023 WTA Comeback Player of the Year award thanks to her jaw-dropping ascent into the world’s Top 25 after an extended maternity break.
The Ukrainian star’s second coming to tennis was the stuff of dreams. Svitolina was unranked when she returned to the tour in April 2023. However, she finished the season as one of the WTA’s standout performers thanks to her newfound confidence and drawing inspiration from her war-torn homeland.
Svitolina played her last WTA match before taking a leave of absence at the end of March 2022. She announced that she was pregnant with her first child. At the same time, Ukraine was embroiled in an escalating war following Russia’s invasion. Tennis was far away from Svitolina’s mind.
Svitolina and her husband, Gael Monfils, became parents for the first time in October 2022. She gave birth to a healthy baby daughter named Skai Monfils. It didn’t take long before the first snippets of Svitolina’s training sessions were released online.
She announced her intention to return in 2023 with no exact time frame. In her time away juggling motherhood and practicing, Svitolina was one of the most famous sportswomen, leading the noble cause of helping her country through her voice and platform.
Her foundation has raised thousands of dollars since the start of the war to help Ukrainians whose homes were wiped away by the constant destruction by Russian forces. Svitolina had a mission to return to the tour and put Ukraine on the tennis map.
Every victory, no matter how insignificant it was in the grand scheme of things, was generating a feeling of satisfaction. She managed to win 21 of 33 matches at all levels last season. Svitolina won her first WTA title as a mother within two months of her comeback taking shape in Strasbourg.
Among her other season’s highlights include a quarterfinal run at the French Open and the last four at Wimbledon, where she scored a famous win over World No. 1 Iga Swiatek.
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