Aurélien Canot, Media365, published on Monday January 20, 2025 at 8:35 a.m.
Six years later, Elina Svitolina (30 years old) is back in the quarter-finals in Melbourne. The Ukrainian, who is still chasing a first Grand Slam title, easily disposed of the Russian Veronika Kudermetova this Monday, against whom she had two defeats. The wife of Gaël Monfils, also still in the race, will be opposed to Madison Keys.
Like her husband Gaël Monfils, Elina Svitolina is experiencing a second youth in this Australian Open. Certainly, the Ukrainian is younger (30 years) than her champion husband, who celebrated his 38th birthday on September 1st. However, it has been a while since she also shone in Melbourne. Because the tournament continues for the former world number 3 while the second week has just started. And it’s anything but anecdotal, because “Svito”, who rushed to take a shower and change after her victory to go support her husband against Ben Shelton, was no longer in the quarter-finals in Melbourne for six years. Her last quarter at a Grand Slam, however, was much shorter, since the Ukrainian had reached this stage of the competition two years ago at Roland-Garros. Still in search of a first title (but also a first final) in a Major, the 27th in the ranking now remained with two defeats against Veronika Kudermetova, whom she had not faced since 2021, however. Monday, in the first match of the day, the Ukrainian set the record straight by correcting the Russian (6-4, 6-1) despite a very bad start (the 75th in the world had led 4-1 at the start of the match). match) to reach the quarters of the Australian meeting for the third time in his life. She has never tasted it yet in the last square, however.
Against Keys for a first?
To repair this anomaly, Svitolina will have to defeat Madison Keys in the next round, who then defeated Elena Rybakina in three sets (6-3, 1-6, 6-3). Like the Ukrainian, the American has found an excellent level of tennis which allows her to hope to return to her best result at the Australian Open, namely the semi-finals, in 2015 and 2022. Since then, the 14th in the world and seeded number 19 had not done better than a round of 16 finish. If she wins against Svitolina, the 2017 US Open finalist will also be able to dream of a first Grand Slam final.
