Ukraine's number one tennis player failed to cope with a “neutral” opponent from an aggressor state.
Ukrainian tennis player Elina Svitolina (No. 23 WTA) failed to reach the semi-finals of the WTA 1000 tournament in Indian Wells, USA.
In the quarter-finals, Ukraine's number one tennis player lost to 17-year-old Russian Mirra Andreeva (No. 11 WTA), who, due to Russia's aggressive war against Ukraine, was only allowed to compete as a neutral player.
The match lasted 1 hour and 30 minutes and ended with Elina's defeat with a score of 5:7, 3:6.
During her time on the court, Svitolina never served an aces, made 4 double faults and converted 1 of 6 break points.
This was the first face-to-face meeting between the tennis players. They had never met on the court before.
Elina played in the quarterfinals of a WTA 1000 tournament for the first time in four years. Before that, the 30-year-old native of Odessa last reached this stage at the tournament in Rome in 2021.
It should be noted that in the 1/8 finals of the tournament in Indian Wells, the Ukrainian won a strong-willed victory over the world's fourth-ranked American Jessica Pegula.