WIMBLEDON, England: The boisterous backing from the normally genteel crowd at Wimbledon was booming. Even raucous at times.
Those hoots and howls helped motivate Elina Svitolina over the last 11 days, pushing the 28-year-old Ukrainian to the semifinals at the All England Club only three months after returning to the game following the birth of her daughter.
It ended there, though, in a 6-3, 6-3 loss to Marketa Vondrousova on Thursday.
“They supported me all the way through. Even today when I was down, I got a lot of support,” Svitolina said. “I’m really thankful for the crowd to support me, be there for me, and all Ukrainian people as well.”
Much of the encouragement came because of her nationality, with Ukraine fighting a war for more than a year following the Russian invasion in February 2022.
“They support us quite a lot in different kind of ways, for a lot of Ukrainians who arrived here when the war started,” said Svitolina, who was playing in front of her country’s ambassador to Britain in the Royal Box. “Really thankful for all the people to support us in different levels.”
Svitolina entered the tournament with a wild card, meaning she wasn’t ranked high enough to get a spot in the main draw and didn’t have to go through qualifying. Her past performances were enough, having been ranked as high as No. 3 in the world, being a Wimbledon semifinalist in 2019, and even reaching the quarterfinals at this year’s French Open.
She proved herself, too, beating four former Grand Slam champions on the way to the semifinals. From Venus Williams in the opening round to top-ranked Iga Swiatek in the quarterfinals, Swiatek found a way to get through.
“Today I wish I played a bit better,” Svitolina said. “But I think the matches that I played before, they were quite good. Yeah, just good matches.”
She nearly put it all back together in the second set on Thursday. Trailing 4-0, Svitolina broke her opponent twice to get back on serve. Vondrousova, however, managed to stop the streak and win the final two games.
“She was coming back. She was playing some good tennis,” said Vondrousova, a 24-year-old Czech left-hander who will face Ons Jabeur in Saturday’s final. “Yeah, I’m just very happy that I stayed focused and I stayed in my head.”
Svitolina had been trying to become the first woman from Ukraine to make it to the title match at a major tennis tournament. She’ll have one more chance to do it this year, at the US Open.
“For sure I hope I can build on this,” Svitolina said. “But right now I’m just really disappointed with the performance that I showed today. That’s what I have right now in my mind.”
