And Svitolina didn’t want people to forget the impact of the Ukraine war more than a year since it started, as she recalled a recent visit to her home of Odesa, where her grandmother still lives. “It’s difficult for my grandmother to ever go out because the lift does not work where she lives. This is what it’s like. Odesa is a lovely place where people used to go on holiday, it is a very chilled vibe normally but now it is very sad,” she explained.
“There are a lot of military on the streets and 95 per cent of the place is without lights. Only sometimes there is heat and it was incredibly difficult for people at the height of the winter when it has been minus five or minus ten.” The war had also taken a toll on the tennis facilities in Ukraine, with one of the country’s most high-profile athletes claiming that it had set tennis back “ten years” in her home nation.
“I think there is only one place where I used to train still working. The place where I trained the most had its roof blown off by a missile,” she revealed. “Our sport has been set back at least ten years. Our athletes can’t train properly, and there are 150 athletes who have been killed fighting on the frontline. It’s obvious that it is not fair conditions.”