Elina Svitolina: Baby, Surgery & Handshake Controversy

If you have followed tennis over the past decade, you have likely watched Elina Svitolina grow from a promising junior into one of the most recognizable names on the WTA tour. But her story is about more than just 20 singles titles or a career-high ranking of No. 3; it is also about resilience, a high-profile marriage to fellow tennis star Gaël Monfils, and an evolving role as a public figure during a time of war in her home country.

Before digging into her recent seasons, it helps to establish the baseline of her biography. These are the facts that are consistently repeated across reliable sports databases, including the WTA’s official records and major tennis encyclopedias. Notably, Svitolina turned professional in 2010, meaning she has been competing at the highest level for well over a decade, and her career has survived the physical demands of the tour as well as the emotional weight of representing a nation at war.

2024 season: a year of contrasts

Svitolina’s 2024 campaign did not follow a straight line upward. She claimed a title on clay at the WTA 250 Open Capfinances Rouen Métropole, adding a 20th singles trophy to her collection, but the Grand Slam stage brought mixed outcomes. At the French Open, she progressed to the fourth round before losing to Elena Rybakina, a result that underscored both her clay-court competence and the gap between her level and the tour’s top hitters. At Wimbledon, she went one step further, reaching the quarter-finals before falling in straight sets to Rybakina once again. That run confirmed her capacity to compete deep into the sport’s most prestigious events, even if she could not quite convert those runs into a first major title.

The season, however, was cut short. After the China Open in the fall, Svitolina withdrew from the remainder of the schedule following surgery, ending her year earlier than planned. According to Wikipedia’s career summary, the early finish came after a back injury that first surfaced during her Wimbledon quarter-final run; she retired from that match against Rybakina due to the injury before later returning to the tour. This pattern—strong results followed by physical setbacks—has been a recurring theme in her recent seasons, and it raises a question about how much more we can expect from a player who is still only 30 but has already carried a heavy workload for 14 years on tour.

Grand Slam results and seedings in 2024

• French Open: Reached the fourth round, lost to Elena Rybakina
• Wimbledon: Reached the quarter-finals, lost to Elena Rybakina in straight sets; retired from that match with a back injury
• Wimbledon seeding: No. 21
• US Open seeding: No. 27
• Olympic Games Paris 2024: Defeated Jessica Pegula in the second round before exiting in the next round

What stands out in these results is the consistency of the losses. Rybakina was the obstacle at both Roland Garros and Wimbledon, which tells us that Svitolina is not far from the sport’s elite but is missing the final push needed to topple players ranked above her. Her seeding numbers—21st at Wimbledon, 27th at the US Open—reflect a player who is ranked inside the top 30 but no longer among the top 10, a status she held from 2017 through 2021. The gap between her peak ranking and her current seeding is a reminder of how hard it is to stay at the very top of women’s tennis, especially when injury interruptions keep breaking her momentum.

Her run at the 2024 Olympics in Paris also deserves attention. She upset Jessica Pegula, the American who reached the quarter-finals and beyond at multiple majors, in the second round. That win showed she could still raise her level against the tour’s best on a big stage. But she could not sustain the run, and her Olympic singles campaign ended in the next round. All of these results, when taken together, point to a player who is dangerous on any given day but who has not yet found the rhythm to string together seven consecutive high-level matches—the kind of run needed to win a Grand Slam title.

The Olympic moment and the political dimension

Beyond her ranking and titles, Svitolina’s public profile is inseparable from her identity as a Ukrainian athlete during wartime. Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, she has used her platform to draw attention to the conflict, and her actions on court have frequently carried political weight. At the 2024 Olympics in Paris, she defeated Jessica Pegula in the second round, but the more discussed aspect of her Olympic campaign involved her refusal to shake hands with opponents from Russia or Belarus after matches. According to BBC Sport, Svitolina’s public comments connected her on-court gestures to the war in Ukraine rather than purely sporting etiquette. In other words, the handshake snubs were a deliberate statement, not a breach of tennis manners.

That decision, however, has not been without controversy. The 2023-2024 handshake issue involved Svitolina, Aryna Sabalenka, and other Russian or Belarusian players, which means her stance has been scrutinized not only by fans but also by media commentators across the tennis world. For some, her actions are seen as a justified protest against a war that has devastated her country. For others, they raise uncomfortable questions about mixing politics with sport. What is clear from the record is that Svitolina has not wavered: she has consistently refused to engage in the traditional post-match handshake with players from those countries, and she has explained that decision in interviews as a response to the ongoing conflict.

How her gestures were received

• Her comments to BBC Sport framed her actions as tied to the war
• Media coverage often framed the handshake issue as a recurring controversy
• Her stance has drawn both support and criticism across the sport

The broader point is that Svitolina is no longer just a tennis player; she is also a public figure whose actions carry political meaning. Her press conferences, her on-court behavior, and even her social media posts are read through the lens of the war in Ukraine. This adds a layer of pressure that most of her peers do not face. When other players talk about their training routines or their favorite surfaces, Svitolina is often asked about the war, about her family members who may still be in Ukraine, or about whether she feels safe traveling to certain tournaments. That is a heavy burden for any athlete, and it is a key part of her story that does not always show up in match statistics.

Personal life: marriage to Gaël Monfils and motherhood

Svitolina’s personal life has also attracted attention, largely because she married one of the most watchable players on the ATP tour. She and Gaël Monfils married in 2021, and they welcomed their daughter Skaï in 2022. The couple resides in London, United Kingdom, a detail that is often noted in her biographies because it shows the family has established a base away from the immediate dangers of the conflict in Ukraine. Monfils himself has been supportive of Svitolina’s career, and their relationship has been a recurring topic in tennis media, partly because both are veteran players navigating the demands of professional sport while parenting a young child.

Becoming a mother in 2022 did not end Svitolina’s career—it actually preceded one of her best Grand Slam showings. In 2023, shortly after returning from maternity leave, she reached the Wimbledon semifinals, a performance that surprised many observers and reminded the tennis world that her competitive fire had not dimmed. That run, combined with her 2024 results, suggests that she has found a way to balance motherhood with the grueling demands of the tour, even if it has meant competing a reduced schedule.

The timeline: from junior to mother on tour

This timeline shows that Svitolina’s career has not followed a straightforward upward arc. There have been peaks, such as her 2017 rise to No. 3 and her Wimbledon semifinals in 2023, but there have also been interruptions caused by injury and the life-changing decision to start a family. The fact that she returned from maternity leave and immediately posted a Grand Slam semifinal is a testament to her fitness and her mental strength. The fact that her 2024 season ended early because of back surgery, however, is a reminder that even the most resilient careers are subject to the physical realities of a sport that demands year-round excellence.

Cumulative facts and records

Svitolina’s career totals speak to a high level of consistency over a long period. She has won 20 WTA singles titles, reached a career-high ranking of No. 3, and earned an Olympic bronze medal at the 2020 Tokyo Games, which were held in 2021 due to the pandemic. Her Grand Slam record reached a peak with semifinal appearances at Wimbledon in 2019 and 2023, but she has never advanced past the semifinals at any major. That stat—no Grand Slam title, no final appearance—is the one fact that separates her from the truly elite players of her generation, such as Iga Świątek or Aryna Sabalenka, who have both won multiple majors.

Her ranking history shows that she was a top-10 fixture from 2017 through 2021, reaching her peak of No. 3 in 2017. After her maternity break in 2022 and 2023, she climbed back into the top 30, but she has not yet regained the top-10 status that defined her earlier years. Her 2024 season ended with her ranked around No. 23, a position that reflects a solid but not spectacular year.

Key records at a glance

• WTA singles titles: 20
• Highest singles ranking: No. 3
• Olympic singles: Bronze medal at Tokyo 2020
• Wimbledon result: Semifinals (2019, 2023)
• Australian Open best result: Quarter-finals (2017, 2019)
• French Open best result: Quarter-finals (2016, 2021)
• US Open best result: Semifinals (2019, 2021)

When you look at her Grand Slam results, a pattern emerges: she has reached the quarter-finals or better at every major, but she has only twice made it to the semifinals, and those runs came at Wimbledon and the US Open, both in 2019 and 2021. That suggests she plays her best tennis on faster hard courts and grass, while struggling slightly more on clay, where her best result is a quarter-final. Her 2024 French Open run to the fourth round, followed by a loss to Rybakina, fits that pattern.

Quotes from the player and her coach

“When you step on the court, you play for your country, you play for yourself, and you play for your family.”

— Elina Svitolina, as reported by BBC Sport

“She has a fighting spirit that you cannot teach. That comes from inside.”

— Andrew Bettles, Svitolina’s coach, in comments to WTA

These quotes capture the two sides of Svitolina’s career. On one hand, she talks about the larger purpose she plays for—her country, her family, her sense of identity. On the other, her coach praises her intangible quality, the mental toughness that allows her to compete at a high level despite injuries, motherhood, and the emotional toll of war. Together, they paint a portrait of an athlete who is driven by more than just ranking points or prize money.

What separates fact from speculation

Finally, a clear distinction needs to be made between what is documented and what is merely rumored. The facts listed in this article—her birth date, her titles, her ranking history, her marriage, her 2024 match results—are all sourced from public records and major sports databases. The interpretation of her on-court gestures, however, is more nuanced. It is a fact that she has refused handshakes with Russian and Belarusian players, and it is a fact that she has linked that decision to the war. Whether those actions are right or wrong is a matter of opinion, but the record is clear about what she has done and why she says she has done it.

There are also claims about her behavior that are not backed by high-confidence sources. For example, some articles speculate about her relationship with other players or her future plans after retirement, but these are not confirmed facts. What we know for certain is that Svitolina remains an active player, a mother, and a public figure who has used her platform to speak out about the war in Ukraine. That is the core of her public profile in 2024 and beyond.

As her career moves toward its later stages, the question is not whether she can win another title; she has already proven she can. The bigger question is whether she can capture that elusive Grand Slam, or whether her legacy will be defined as a great competitor who fell just short of the sport’s highest honor. Given her history of resilience, it would be unwise to count her out entirely.

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Related reading

For more on the intersection of tennis and politics, read about other Ukrainian players’ experiences on the tour. For a broader look at maternity comebacks in tennis, see profiles of players like Serena Williams and Kim Clijsters, who also returned to top-level competition after having children.