“Elina held a press conference after reaching the semifinals of the Australian Open 2026”, — write: sport.ua
– Elina, congratulations on your first semi-final at the Australian Open. Tell us about the match and your performance today.
– Yes, it was a good day. I am very satisfied with the way I played. Not only in this match, but also in the tournament as a whole. I’m just very happy that I finally made it to the semi-finals after so many years and so many attempts.
– What emotions do you feel, being in the semi-finals and being one step away from the first final?
– To be honest, I don’t look that far ahead. I try to take the match as it is. It will be another big test and of course it is a step towards the final, but for me it is important to focus on the recovery and the tactical points that I have to work on tomorrow and just be ready for the big test.
– When you see that your opponent is not having the best day, what is your strategy to keep things going in your favor?
– It certainly adds a bit of pressure, and it’s a good and bad feeling at the same time, because you feel like you have a chance to play well. You have a chance to win this match and you must continue. You have to try to play well, and I think I played well. I think I handled it well, and since Coco is such a great champion, she’s come back a few times in our matches before, losing one set, so [в цьому матчі] I tried to keep building, I tried to keep playing well. Tried to really stay focused from start to finish.
– Today you played very bravely and attacked with your forehand. More aggressive tennis has been your style for the past few years. How natural is it for you to play like that at the moment in such a big match?
– Now it is quite natural for me. And I think since I’ve come back from pregnancy, the main thing for me has been finding opportunities to attack, trying to take my time, because I think I’ve still had matches where I’ve been in too much of a rush. So, yes, it’s all about balance, but the main thing for me right now is to move well, look for small opportunities for initiative and, yes, try to strike first. I think sometimes I feel I can play better and sometimes I can hold the ball a little longer. So yes…
Getty Images/Global Images Ukraine – What difficulties will you face, playing with the first racket of the world on this court? And how do you plan to stop her from getting into a rhythm?
– I am not sure that I will tell you now what exactly I am going to do. But tomorrow I will find time to talk to the coach about a few tactical points that I need to work on on the training court. I will also have a day to recover my physical strength. Although today’s match lasted less than an hour, it still requires a lot of effort from the body. So for me, those two things will be a priority, and yes, of course, playing with the number one racket in the world is a big challenge.
– You already have several big achievements in your career, including winning the WTA Finals. Do you think you’re playing better now than you were seven or eight years ago?
– I would say yes. But now I have the experience of previous years. Of course, I can’t help but appreciate what I achieved a few years ago because I won the WTA Finals playing against the great players of that time. And also an exit to the semi-finals [мейджорів] still a great achievement for me. I think that without this achievement I would not be who I am now.
And I feel that the most important thing for me is to find new ways to win. There are so many young players now. There are so many aggressive players who, if you’re not at your best, just take the match away from you. That’s why you have to develop your game. You have to get better. You have to try to find ways to find what works for you. So for me, it’s all about trying to get better every week, because the development of tennis doesn’t stop. That’s why you should always keep searching.
– What is it like to play against Aryna Sobolenko? You have played with her several times. What are its strengths?
– It is no secret that she is a very powerful tennis player. I watched a bit of her match today. She played great and I think her strength is in all aspects of her game. And, yes, I think she’s been very consistent in recent years in everything she does on the court. I should be ready for this. Try to find weak points, holes, small opportunities in her game. Of course, when playing with top players, you need to find these small opportunities and be ready to take advantage of them.
– I know you talked a lot about the break you took last year to rest. I wonder if this was an easy or difficult decision? Players say it’s hard for them to leave the Tour for a while because they feel like if they don’t play, they’ll lose their place in a sense and it’ll be hard for them to get back to where they were before. So was it an easy decision for you?
– Do you mean last year? On the one hand, it was a difficult decision, but then I talked to my team, I talked to Gael, I talked to the family and we found a lot of positives in it because, as I mentioned a couple of days ago, if I hadn’t stopped, if I had kept pushing last year, I don’t think I would have been able to start here. I would be exhausted and not even sure I wouldn’t get injured.
Because when you’re playing at the highest level, you’re pushing yourself and you’re on the edge, and that’s when injuries happen. In such situations, the tension becomes too great and the body gives up. So it was important for me to just take a step back. And I am very glad that I did it. Of course, it’s easy to say now because the results were great: I won the trophy in Auckland and I’m playing well here, but I still think it helped me and now of course I don’t regret taking that break. I don’t know how I would have said it if I had lost in the first round or played badly, but now it worked.
– Did you surprise yourself with how quickly you returned to form after this break?
– I try to trust myself, and my coach always tells me that I have to trust myself, when I’m fresh, when I’m mentally ready for difficult situations, then I can play well. I can be difficult on the court. It may not always be easy to win against some opponents, but still I am ready to give my best. I’m willing to fight, come back when the going gets tough because you lose almost every week.
So you need to recover quickly because next week there will be another big tournament. It is at such moments that you need to be mentally fresh, to keep calm and understand what you did well and what not, analyze it, go back to the training court and give yourself another chance to play better.
– Since the victory, did you have time to see the messages with support from home?
– Only quickly, because there were many messages. I saw that there are many of them, of course, it is great for my country. I know that many people watched m matches, especially the previous ones.
It is very important for me, close to my heart, to see such support from Ukrainians. Many people in Ukraine are becoming interested in tennis, which is great, because now is probably one of the hardest winters for Ukrainians, without electricity and everything else.
Therefore, I feel that I bring some light, even just positive news to the Ukrainian people, to my friends, when they watch my matches. Yes, of course, this is a wonderful feeling for me.
