Since the dawn of Open tennis in 1968, a combined total of 51 men and women have known the singular feeling of standing alone at the end of the US Open fortnight. Fifty years, 51 champions.
Ask any of those 51 and they’ll tell you—it takes so much more than talent to win here. You need the whole package: intelligence, desire, stamina, courage. You need to own every shot in the book, and when that’s not enough, you need to be ready to write a new chapter or two. Indeed, the courts of the US Open are tennis’ ultimate proving grounds. If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere.
Twelve former champions are in the field at the 2019 US Open, which figures to make adding to the total of 51 that much more difficult. But there are a number of players with the talent and tenacity to make the difficult disappear; a group which just may have the stuff to claim tennis’ toughest title. As we look forward to the 2019 US Open, USOpen.org takes a closer look at some of those players, asking the question: “Who’s 52?”
In this installment, we highlight Elina Svitolina.
By age 24, Elina Svitolina has already racked up achievements that most never get close to: 13 career WTA titles; becoming the first woman from her country to break the Top 10, and later, the highest-ever ranking by a player from her country, male or female. She'd also won the season-ending WTA Finals, the most prestigious tournament on tour outside of the four Grand Slams.
There was only one thing missing from her resumé: delivering on those four big stages.
Despite spending over 100 consecutive weeks in the Top 10 to date, and appearing in four quarterfinals, the Ukrainian had never reached a Grand Slam semifinal entering the second half of 2019.
After just one fortnight at Wimbledon, however, she finally checked off that box — and with a second-half surge, she might be primed to go even further at Flushing Meadows.
The first half of 2019 proved unkind to Svitolina, as she struggled with a knee injury over the course of the early season after a quarterfinal showing at the Australian Open, and semifinal runs in Doha, Dubai and Indian Wells. Reaching the third round of the French Open in between, Svitolina lost in the opening round of the four other tournaments she entered prior to Wimbledon, but won five matches at a major for the first time before losing to eventual champion Simona Halep.
“I think it gives you extra motivation, extra confidence for the future. This extra push for the end of the season,” Svitolina said upon reaching the final four. “In general, I’m just happy that I'm playing free, I'm playing decent tennis, I would say. Yeah, just happy that I have opportunity to play in semifinal of Wimbledon. It's something special.”
While the result did not go as she had hoped — she won just four games in losing to Halep — a rejuvenated Svitolina had her eyes firmly looking forward at the conclusion of her stay at the All-England Club. “It's lots of positives to take," said Svitolina. "If someone would tell me I would play semifinals in Wimbledon, I'm not sure I would really believe this.”
“So, yeah, for sure I'm disappointed, but lots of things to take, lots of memories.”
And it might just be other memories — good ones on the North American hard courts — that could carry the Ukrainian through to a deep run at this year’s final Grand Slam. Leading into the US Open in 2017, Svitolina was riding high, having won the Rogers Cup in Toronto en route to becoming the first woman to ever win three ‘Premier 5’ events on the WTA in the same season.
In her last two US Opens, Svitolina was defeated by eventual finalist Madison Keys in 2017, and eventual semifinalist Anastasija Sevastova a year later, but nonetheless capped a breakthrough 2018 by winning the season-ender in Singapore, and reaching a career-high ranking of world No.3.
A noted threat on the high-bouncing hard courts at various WTA stops — 11 of her 15 career WTA finals have come on the cement — Svitolina has played in seven US Open main draws, but has never advanced past the round of 16.
Considering she’s already crossed one “never” off her list this season, though, a big run under the bright lights in the Big Apple certainly isn’t out of reach.
To read more from this series, visit our "Who's 52?" landing page.
