Tennis

Elina Svitolina accepts wildcard into ITF clay-court tournament

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Former world No 3 Elina Svitolina has accepted to play an ITF tournament in Oeiras, which is taking place between April 17-23.

Svitolina, 28, hasn’t played in 12 months but she is returning to action next week at a WTA event in Charleston.

After Charleston, Svitolina will head to Portugal, where she will compete on the clay courts of Oeiras. 

In Oeiras, Svitolina will without any doubt be the biggest name in the player field, considering her resume. 

Svitolina on why she decided to return during the clay season

In October, Svitolina and her husband Gael Monfils welcomed their first child, a baby girl Skai. 

Initially, Svitolina was targeting to be ready to return during the grass season. 

But after seeing how well she was feeling in practice, Svitolina figured out that there was no reason for her to wait until the grass season to return.

“At first, we thought that my comeback would be at a time of Wimbledon, but then, when we saw that I was in quite good training shape, we started wondering about Roland Garros and the tournaments prior to it. For example – Rome. When I started playing with some girls, I felt that I was already in about 80% of my good form. Then we decided: if I play on clay, practice long enough, then maybe it would be good to start in Charleston, because this is the first clay tournament. This way I will be able to play the entire clay season, because my level in a training sense is very good. Our daughter Skaï won’t be with me in Charleston, it’s still a long road, but then when I go back to Europe and there’s a European series, it’ll be a lot easier for her to travel and we’ll be closer to home. So it’ll a lot easier to plan everything,” Svitolina told BTU.

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