Svitolina ended her 2025 season early, saying she had “not been feeling like myself”.
She has begun 2026 with a 10-match winning streak – the third-longest of her career. She has dropped just one set in that sequence and triumphed in Auckland shortly before the first major of the year.
“If I would keep pushing last year, I think I wouldn’t start here. I would be exhausted, and even not sure if I would be injury-free,” Svitolina said.
“It was important to just step back. I have no regrets to take this time.”
Svitolina will face a tough task if she is to break further ground. She has lost her past four meetings with her semi-final opponent, world number one Aryna Sabalenka.
But Svitolina knows what all of her victories mean back home.
She took a break from the game in 2022 because of, among other things, the emotional strain of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Svitolina wrote in her BBC column in 2024 that many Ukrainians feel people have lost interest in their ongoing fight to repel the invasion. She speaks about the war frequently in her post-match news conferences and often writes a message to her country on the camera lens after victory.
“For my country, it’s great. I know that lots of people been watching, especially the matches that I had before,” Svitolina said after her victory over Gauff.
“It’s very close to my heart to see a lot of support from Ukrainians. It was, I think, one of the toughest winters for Ukrainian people.
“I feel like [I] bring this light, a little light, to Ukrainian people, to my friends when they are watching my matches.
“It’s a great feeling for me.”
