The last few months have been frustrating for Elina Svitolina. She has been troubled by a knee injury since February and has not been able to play as much tennis as she would like.
This has led to a very mixed set of results for the Ukrainian. She played through the pain for a while and made it to three successive Premier semi-finals in Doha, Dubai and Indian Wells.
Sensibly, the World No.7 then decided not to push her luck and she took a six-week break to rest her knee after she was knocked out early in Miami.
When Svitolina returned to the tour, she lost in the first round in Madrid and Rome, so she was very short on match practice going into the French Open.
Despite that, the Ukrainian produced a good performance to beat Venus Williams in the first round, then she progressed to the third round by default after Kateryna Kozlova withdrew. Unfortunately for Svitolina, she did not get any more match practice in Paris as Muguruza defeated her in straight sets.
Svitolina not getting her hopes up due to lack of match practice
That loss to the Spaniard meant the World No.7 came to Birmingham having played just four matches since 23 March. It is far from ideal preparation, and it explains why she has set the bar low for the grass court season.
“I don’t have expectations,” Svitolina said. “For me it is just playing one tournament, one match at a time. I want to win as many matches as I can. If I don’t, maybe it’s not meant to be, but I will try my best.”
She continued, “I try to work really hard each day on and off the court to be ready for each event and each match, but I’m not really thinking too far ahead. Health is the priority for me now.”
The Ukrainian lost 6-3 3-6 6-4 to Margarita Gasparyan in the opening round, and she is keen to move on quickly as quickly as possible. “Of course it’s a little bit disappointing to lose the first match on a different surface,” she said. “It doesn’t give you much confidence. But also I’m trying not to take away the confidence I got from Roland Garros, which was not too bad.”
Ultimately, Svitolina is going to have to be patient while she waits for her form to return. All she can do in the meantime is work hard on the practice court and keep playing matches, and the WTA tour will soon see back at her best. She is too good a player to be stuck in the doldrums for long.
