Elina Svitolina Documentary The Deceptively Casual Tennis Player
Elina Svitolina Documentary The Deceptively Casual Tennis Player
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00:00 Ilina Svitolina is a Ukrainian tennis player who has made great strides to her consistent
00:05 performance throughout her career.
00:08 She has become the first Ukrainian woman who broke into the top 10 of the WTA singles rankings.
00:15 Svitolina's athleticism, passion and fighting qualities made people praise her from all
00:21 corners.
00:22 Welcome to the Rich Rabbit and today we'll be talking about the life journey of Ilina
00:27 Svitolina.
00:28 But first things first, if you haven't yet subscribed to our channel, please do consider
00:33 doing it.
00:34 And don't forget to click the bell icon.
00:38 Svitolina was born in Odessa to Ukrainian parents Mykhailo Svitolin, a former wrestler,
00:44 and Olena Svitolina, a former competitive rower.
00:49 She was named after the famous Ukrainian actress Alina Bestrytska.
00:54 She also has an older brother, Yulian.
00:57 As a child, Svitolina noticed that her brother was getting a lot of attention for playing
01:02 tennis.
01:03 This inspired her to take up the sport to regain some of her father's attention.
01:09 She started playing at the age of five.
01:13 When she was 13, Svitolina and her family moved to Kharkiv, Ukraine, after businessman
01:20 Yuri Sapronov became her sponsor.
01:24 Sapronov had seen her play at one of his children's tournaments when she was 12 and was impressed.
01:31 This led to his investment in her training and further professional development.
01:36 Svitolina officially still resides in Kharkiv, but trains abroad, which limits her presence
01:41 in Odessa.
01:43 She also has a residence in London.
01:46 She has said that in her early career, she turned down offers to change her citizenship
01:51 in exchange for large financial sums.
01:56 Svitolina's greatest achievement as a junior was winning the French Open girls event in
02:00 2010, beating Tunisian Once Djaber in the final.
02:06 Svitolina gained direct entry into the Australian Open, where she was defeated by fifth seed
02:11 Angelique Kaba in the first round.
02:14 She won her first WTA title at the Baku Cup by beating Shahar Pir.
02:19 In doing so, Svitolina became the first teenager to win a WTA tournament since February 2012.
02:27 The victory led to a jump of 32 spots in the WTA rankings, landing her at number 49 in
02:33 2013.
02:35 She began 2015 at the Brisbane International, where she reached the semifinals before losing
02:41 to eventual champion Maria Sharapova.
02:44 At the Australian Open, Svitolina reached the third round, and won the first set against
02:49 world number one and eventual champion Serena Williams, before losing in three sets.
02:56 At the French Open, she comfortably dispatched Janina Wickmeyer in her opening match.
03:03 But Svitolina had to recover from love three in the second set and won four in the final
03:08 set to beat Yulia Putinseva in a match that lasted over three hours.
03:15 Svitolina defeated Elisey Kornet in a fourth-round match to set up a maiden Grand Slam quarterfinal
03:21 against Anna Ivanovic, which she lost in straight sets.
03:27 Svitolina rose to number 17 after this tournament, surpassing Alona Bondarenko as the highest-ranked
03:33 Ukrainian woman in the Open era.
03:36 At the Rio Olympics, Svitolina scored her first win over defending champion and then
03:40 world number one Serena Williams.
03:43 She beat the American in straight sets in the third round to reach the quarterfinals.
03:49 Svitolina failed to follow up her landmark victory in the next round, however, losing
03:54 to eventual bronze medalist Petra Kvitva.
03:58 Svitolina won her fifth career title at the Taiwan Open in 2017 after defeating China's
04:04 Aung Shawai in the final.
04:07 She then started her campaign at the French Open as one of the favorites.
04:13 Svitolina progressed to her first three matches with relative ease.
04:18 She defeated Yaroslava Shvedova, Svetlana Pirunkova and Magda Linat, respectively.
04:25 Svitolina then overcame qualifier Petra Martic in a tied three-set encounter to advance to
04:31 her second major quarterfinal.
04:34 She faced Simona Halep in a rematch of the Italian Open final.
04:38 Although she held a match point against the 2014 finalists, she lost in three sets.
04:45 At Wimbledon, she surpassed her previous performances by reaching the fourth round, defeating potential
04:51 dark horse Ashley Barty in the first round.
04:55 She then eased past Francesca Chavon and Karina Witthoeft before bowing out to French Open
05:01 champion Yelena Ostapenko in straight sets.
05:06 Svitolina began her 2018 season by capturing the Brisbane International title, defeating
05:12 qualifier Aleksandra Sasnovic in the final.
05:16 She then competed at the Australian Open as the fourth seed.
05:20 She faced qualifier Ivana Djurovic and won in straight sets.
05:25 Against Katarina Sienakova, Svitolina prevailed in three sets.
05:30 She then had two straight sets wins over qualifier Marta Kostiuk and Denisa Alertova to advance
05:38 to her first Australian Open quarterfinal, where she was upset by Belgian Elise Martens
05:44 in straight sets.
05:46 As the sixth seed, she was drawn into the white group alongside defending champion
05:51 Karoline Wozniacki and Czechs Pliskova and Petra Kvitova at the WTA finals.
05:58 She won all three of her round-robin matches, first against Kvitova, defeating her in straight
06:03 sets.
06:04 She then defeated both Pliskova and Wozniacki in three sets to secure her place in the semifinals.
06:11 She defeated Kiki Bertens in three sets.
06:15 And then in the final, she came from a set down to beat Sloane Stephens, winning the
06:20 biggest title of her career.
06:23 Svitolina ended the year as the world number four.
06:27 At sixth at the Australian Open 2019, she continued a dominant run to make her second
06:32 consecutive quarterfinal.
06:35 She was, however, afflicted by a neck and shoulder injury and was defeated by eventual
06:41 champion Naomi Osaka in straight sets.
06:44 At the French Open, Svitolina was defeated in the third round by the 2016 champion Garbine
06:51 Muguruza.
06:53 Svitolina proceeded to reach her first Grand Slam semifinal at Wimbledon with victories
06:57 over Margarita Gasparyan, Maria Sakkari, Petra Martic and Karolina Mukhova, becoming the
07:04 first Ukrainian ever to do so.
07:07 There, she faced eventual champion Simona Halep and was defeated in two sets.
07:13 Entering the US Open as the number five seed, she reached the quarterfinal.
07:18 There, she defeated Johanna Konta in straight sets for a spot in her second successive Grand
07:24 Slam semifinal.
07:26 She was then defeated in straight sets by Serena Williams.
07:30 She subsequently returned to her career high-ranking position of number three.
07:35 At the Australian Open 2020, Svitolina defeated Katie Bolter and Lauren Davis before falling
07:42 to eventual runner-up Garbine Muguruza.
07:46 Following the suspension of the WTA Tour due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Svitolina declined
07:52 to participate in the US Open due to safety concerns.
07:59 Svitolina began the Australian Open 2021 as the fifth seed and made it to the fourth round.
08:05 But she was shocked by unseeded Jessica Pegula in another three-set match.
08:10 At the French Open, Svitolina lost in the third round to eventual champion Barbara Krejcikova
08:16 in straight sets.
08:18 The swing culminated with Wimbledon, where the defending semifinalist finished with a
08:23 straight-set loss to unseeded Magdalena Ek in just the second round.
08:28 Her elimination marked the biggest upset of the year's tournament at the time.
08:34 At the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Svitolina entered into the singles tennis tournament
08:40 as the fourth seed.
08:42 This would be her second bid to earn her home country its first medal in tennis in Olympics
08:47 history.
08:49 After defeating Kamila Georgie in the quarterfinals, she was stopped from reaching the gold medal
08:53 match by Marketa Vondrusova in the semifinals when she lost in straight sets.
09:01 Disappointed from losing the semifinals, she faced off against Elena Rebekina in the bronze
09:06 medal match in a rematch since their encounter in Eastbourne.
09:11 This time, Svitolina exected revenge and came back from a set down to win the second set
09:16 tiebreak and the decider.
09:20 In New York at the year's US Open, Svitolina began her campaign with straight-set wins
09:26 over Rebeka Marino and Rebeka Masarova in the first and second round respectively.
09:32 But in the quarterfinals, Svitolina was toppled by unseeded 19-year-old Leila Fernandez in
09:38 a thriller three-setter.
09:40 Now moving on to her personal life.
09:42 Svitolina has been endorsed by Nike for clothing and shoes since 2016, having previously been
09:48 sponsored by Alize and Lacoste.
09:52 Svitolina uses Wilson rackets, specifically endorsing the Wilson Blade range of rackets.
09:58 The Ukrainian tennis player has a craving for tattoos as well.
10:02 She loves tattooing, especially when it carries or symbolizes a significant meaning.
10:09 She is also the owner of a raw, vegan, sugar-free and gluten-free nutrition bar named Spritfit.
10:16 Currently, the athlete owns a beautiful place in London and resides there.
10:21 Apart from that, she also lives in Kharkiv, Ukraine.
10:26 Svitolina is married to ADB tennis player Gail Monfield.
10:30 They began their relationship in 2019, announced their engagement two years later in 2021 and
10:36 were married that same year.
10:38 Svitolina is worth over $12 million.
10:42 On top of that, she has won approximately $20 million in prize money.
10:47 And with that, I think we should call it a day.
10:50 But we sure hope that you liked our video and found it informative.
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10:58 to click the bell icon.
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11:05 And I'll see you in the next video.