The strongest Ukrainian Elina Svitolina (12th in the WTA ranking), who knocked out the world's 3rd racket Coco Gauff from the USA, failed to make it to the final of the first Grand Slam tournament of the year, the Australian Open, with a total prize fund of 77 million US dollars, losing in the semifinals to the 27-year-old supporter of dictator Lukashenko, Arina Sobolenko from Belarus.
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The semifinal match lasted 1 hour and 17 minutes and ended in defeat for the 31-year-old from Odessa — 2:6, 3:6. The score of the personal meetings of the tennis players was 6:1 in favor of the 2023 and 2024 Australian Open champion Sobolenko. At the same time, Elina interrupted her winning streak in 2026, which consisted of 10 matches.
The first-ever semifinal appearance at the Australian Open (previously, the Ukrainian reached the quarterfinals in 2018, 2019, and 2025) brought Svitolina 780 rating points and $862,500 in “dirty” money. By the way, a successful performance in Melbourne will allow Elina to enter the top ten of the world rankings for the first time since 2021.
Let us recall that at the current Australian Open, before the matches with Gauff and Sobolenko, Elina Svitolina managed to defeat Spaniard Kristina Buksha (51st) – 6:4, 6:1, Linda Klymowiczova (134th) from Poland – 7:5, 6:1, as well as two “neutrals” Diana Schneider (22nd) – 7:6, 6:3 and Mirra Andreeva (7th) – 6:2, 6:4.
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We would like to add that in the second semifinal of the 2026 Australian Open on January 29, Elena Rybakina (Kazakhstan, 5th) and Jessica Pegula (USA, 6th) will play.
Previously, “FACTS” reported that Svitolina won the tournament in Auckland.
Photo by Jimmie48
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