The strongest tennis player in Ukraine, Elina Svitolina (10th in the world), who reached the semifinals of the 2026 Australian Open, made it to the semifinals of the prestigious WTA 1000 tournament in Rome for the third time in her career with a prize fund of 7.2 million euros.
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In a difficult quarterfinal match, the 31-year-old from Odessa managed to break the resistance of the world's second-ranked player Elena Rybakina from Kazakhstan in three sets in 2 hours and 25 minutes – 2:6, 6:4, 6:4, leveling the score in head-to-head matches with the native of Moscow (4:4).
Reaching the semifinals of the tournament in the Italian capital, which Svitolina won in 2017 and 2018, brought Elina 289,115 euros in prize money. The Ukrainian will challenge for a place in the final of the competition with the three-time champion of Rome, former world number one Iga Swiontek (3rd) from Poland, who in the quarterfinals forced American Jessica Pegula (5th) to surrender — 6:1, 6:2. The match will take place on Thursday, May 14 (start — no earlier than 9:30 p.m.).
We should add that Elina and Iga have previously faced each other six times, and success only favored the Ukrainian twice (in particular, Elina defeated her rival in March 2026 in the quarterfinals of the WTA 1000 tournament in Indian Wells). By the way, this season Svitolina has already defeated opponents from the top 10 of the world ranking five times.
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Previously, “FACTS” reported that Ukrainian Marta Kostyuk became the champion of the WTA 1000 tournament in Madrid.
Photo by Jimmie48
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