Elina Svitolina will launch her comeback from maternity leave at next week’s Credit One Charleston Open as a wildcard and the latest news is that the Ukrainian will continue her season at an ITF tournament in Oeiras, Portugal.
After the WTA 500 clay-court tournament in Charleston, Svitolina will play a W100 ITF event that takes place from April 17 to April 23 in Oeiras near Lisbon. In that period there’s the WTA 500 Porsche Tennis Grand Prix on the Hologic WTA Tour calendar, but Svitolina will try to get more matches under her belt as a wildcard at the small event where she will be the biggest name in the draw. World No.36 Marie Bouzkova, world No.50 Linda Fruhvirtova, and last year’s Wimbledon semifinalist Tatjana Maria are other notable names on the Oeiras player list.
The former world No.3 Svitolina told Kyiv Post: “During my pregnancy I did not exercise at all in order to give my body a rest. […] I actually had to build up my muscles from scratch, two weeks after giving birth, I got back to my usual fitness level. And after another three months, I began to gradually return to training.”
The 28-year-old Svitolina gave birth to daughter Skai in October 2022. At the time she left the WTA Tour because of pregnancy, she was ranked No.20. Her last tournament was the 2022 Miami Open. (source: Tennis World USA)
